


Dragons And Other Ones With Fangs (English)

by Ca110



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Dragonborn (Elder Scrolls), F/F, Female Homosexuality, Female Protagonist, Games
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2014-12-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 22:04:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 18
Words: 27,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2598068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ca110/pseuds/Ca110
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aurora Gray-Mane is a member of the Gray-Mane clan and the dragonborn. She is also an valuable member of the Companions. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she was sent by Kodlakto Markarth to take care of a mission. In this story we are folowing the dragonborn on her journey trough Tamriel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER:  
> The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, all names of TOS characters and any other TOS related items are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of Bethesda, or their respective trademark and copyright holders. This Story is written for fun, not for profit.
> 
> Authors Note:  
> A long time ago, I had the idea of writing this. Now I found the time to do so. I will update every MONDAY and propably midweeks, but i cant say that for sure. But you can count on two capters a week.  
> If you want to left a review, feel free to do so. Same for ideas, witch can be integrated into the story, I would like to do this a little interactive.  
> SPOILER-ALART for the whole game.  
> My goal is it to navigate this Story through the whole game, inclouding Dawnguard, but just to orientat on the story-strings that are given. So it propabliy shouldn't be boring if you know the game as well as I do :)
> 
> Aaaand last but not least: I'm not a nativespeaker, so I hope you can forgive me some unpleasant formulations. Maybee someone of you guys could do my beta-reading in english? If you wish so, comment and we figure everything out.
> 
> Link for German version:  
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/2592923/chapters/5773922

Here's the link to the [Cover-Picture](http://ca110.deviantart.com/art/Dragons-And-Other-Ones-With-Fangs-493596072)

 

 

Chapter: 1

Aurora walked slowly towards the great bronze gate of Markarth. Although she had grown up in Skyrim, she had never been in the capital of Reach. He was surprised, how easy the traveling through Reach went, only once she had been attacked by a single scout of the Forsworn. She had been asked by Kodlak White-Mane personally, to execute a mission here. It was the first job she was allowed to carry out alone after her transformation into werewolf.

When she finally arrived at the gigantic gates, she saw that they looked as if they had been made by dwarf’s hand. Strange, intricate patterns covered both wings. One of the city guards, who were posted at the gates, came up to her.

"Welcome to Markarth. But I cannot recommend a long visit here. The city isn’t safe for strangers. Tell me who you are and what do you want? ".

Aurora brushed a few of her blond hairs from her face and looked at the guard with her piercing blue eyes.

"My name is Aurora Gray-Mane. I belong to the companions", she replied.

"It is an honor Companion, you free to enter the city, but watch out," the guard said and opened the heavy doors, which allowed entrance into the city.

Behind the gate Aurora found a marketplace. About fifty people were in the immediate vicinity. Almost all of them were Nords, some Bretons were among them, occasionally one or two Elves. Suddenly, shouts could be heard, and Aurora began to look around. When she found the source of the screams, a bunch of people that where standing around something, she saw some guards who shoved a path through the crowd, so she took the opportunity to see what had happened.

On the floor of the marketplace were two bodies, a man and a woman, apparently they had killed each other. Shaking her head, Aurora made her way across the Market and into the tavern. She was looking forward to a real bed. After three days of traveling sleeping in the wilderness the thought of a bed was tempting.  
She felt compared to her shield sister Aela, still more comfortable in a bed than in the wilderness on the hunt, but maybe it was because she was not as long a werewolf as Aela was.

When she entered the tavern, the older man behind the counter directly offered a room to her. Without long to haggle over the price, she agreed and made her way into the room. For a moment Aurora lay on the bed, which she found in her room, and closed her eyes.

When she awoke, merry laughter could be heard from the taproom. Tiredly she rose and made her way back into the room. Her light leather armor and her sword, which Eorlund had forged for her, where hidden under the long black cloak she wore. After the murder on the marketplace, she wanted to attract as little attention as possible.

The air in the taproom was stuffy and smelled of stale tobacco-smoke. After a few minutes Aurora decided to rather get some fresh air and then to rest the rest of the night, to be refreshed in the morning so she could address her mission and visit the customer.

Slowly strolling she made her way further into the city. The farer she walked into the city, the more she had to climb stairs. The city looked like a Dwemer ruin and probably that was exactly what it was. Never before Aurora had seen architecture in equal rank. Nothing built by human hands could look like these buildings. To her left a stream was flowing beside the road. About twenty meters in front of her she spotted a bridge that swung over the stream and gave access to another city level.

Suddenly she noticed two people standing in front of her in the darkness. One wore ordinary clothes, the other a mage robe and heavy gauntlets, evidently a Vigilant of Stendar, Aurora had met some of them on her travels.

"And you really know nothing about this house?" the Vigilant asked.

"No, I'm sorry. Good night", the other man replied gruffly and made his way further up in the city.

As the Vigilant saw Aurora, he started to walk in her direction.

"Good evening, may I ask you some questions?" He asked in his pleasant voice.

"Of course, but I'm not from Markarth, so I don’t know if I can help you."

Aurora looked at the man's face, he was one head taller than herself, even though he was clearly not a Nord. She herself was, thanks to her Breton father also not the tallest person. To be precise, she was even in comparison with a pure-blooded Breton woman rather small.

"I understand, but you still might know something about this house", he said, pointing to a door that was embedded in the rock to her left.

"No, I'm sorry, as I said, I'm not from here. What do you know about the house, Vigilant", she replied with an apologetic look.

"I'm impressed. You have heard of my order. I do not know much, I feel Deadra activity in this house. I just wanted to go inside and look at it. Then this man appeared and I thought I could ask him something that might help me”, replied the Vigilant, waving a hand in the direction the man was gone, "But apparently strangers are not very welcomed here".

"Do you need help during the investigation of the house? “ Aurora asked.

"This would mean a lot to me, but tell me, who are you?" He asked.  
"My name is Aurora Gray-Mane, I’m one of the companions," she said and held out a hand.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we go, chapter two :)  
> I loaded it up in German, so I thougt you guys gonna get it too.
> 
> WARNING: Rape/Non-Con Elements in this Chapter. If you don't wanna read it, I marked the beginning along with the end of the section with a bar (-------------). You have been warned. 
> 
> Have fun :)

Chapter 2 

The house looked from the inside exactly like Aurora would have expected it. All in all it seemed like a Dwemer ruin, messy as it was. Slowly and with drawn weapons, Aurora and the Vigiland of Stendar made their way into the house. The few rooms were passed quickly and they came to a staircase that led to the basement of the house. A lattice door barred the way.

Slowly, to prevent making noises, Aurora knelt in front of the lock on her knees and took one of her lock picks from her sleeve. Cautiously she picked the lock and opened the door.

"Impressive," the Vigilant said approvingly and made his way to the basement.

Aurora stowed the still intact lock pick back in her sleeve and followed him down the stairs. The basement was as empty as the rest of the house. But they found an opening in the wall, which culminated in a cave-like passage and led further down.

"I feel that the source of energy is down there, we have to be careful," the Vigilant said to her and made his way down the path, in front of her.

The corridor ended quickly in a kind of chamber, an altar was built on the opposite wall. It consisted of a large head that reminded disband of an Orc, but still had horns and radiated with malice.

Aurora still standing in the hallway, looked in awe at the altar, she had the feeling that it called for her. When she finally made the last steps into the altar chamber, suddenly everything went black around her and she felt like she was pulled from Nirn.

 

Aurora opened her eyes, she was lying on a bed. All the air around her burned, but she only felt the unbearable heat without being burned. Slowly she got up and looked around. The walls were made of ice, so was the bed she lay on, if it could be called like that. The tremendous heat of the air did not seem to hurt all the ice. As she let her gaze wander around the room, she saw a figure, his body was black and muscular, in some places it seemed to radiate reddish shimmer. At the point where he should have finger or toe nails, claws were the only thing to be seen, razor-sharp claws. His head resembled that on the altar. His mouth was twisted in a sneer.

"You know who I am?" The figure asked in an unreal sounding voice.

The sound let a shiver run down Aurora’s spine. She did not know where she was, but this figure, obviously wanted nothing good. She saw only one way to get out of this situation. She turned into her werewolf form and jumped with a loud roar at the figure in front of her.

The grin on the face of the monster had not vanished. A few centimeters before she reached him, he lifted one of his hands and stopped her midair. At Aurora's surprise, she turned back to her human form and hit the ground. The floor was the coldest she had ever felt. The remains of her torn clothing hung down her body and the heat of the air burned freely on her skin.

"A child of Hircine, I should have known," the figure said and took a step toward her. With ease she was lifted back on the ice bed and thrown down on it.

"I'm Molag Bal," he said in an imperious voice, that send another shiver down Aurora, "Deadric Prince of domination and enslavement".

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a force and speed, that Aurora had no chance to fight back or even saying a word, he was on her and pushed her onto the icy bed.

"You will submit yourself to me".

Aurora wanted to reply something, but not a word over her tongue, fear had took hold of her. She knew that she could do nothing to prevent what would come next.

She felt how Molag Bal tore of the remaining clothes from her body and stroked her now naked body with his claws. She began to realize what he was planning. She felt tears run over her face, she had no chance to fight against him. She hoped he was gracious enough to kill her quickly if he was done with her.

 

Aurora had lost track of time, all she know was pain, the burning hot air, the icy bed and Molag Bal’s torture. A sudden pain, the agony surpassed all had come before, suddenly burned in her chest. When she opened her eyes with difficulty, she saw the Deadra, sitting on top of her, had begun to dig a hole between her breasts, using his claws. She saw blood began to flow from her chest. A sudden jerk and she saw how Molag Bal broke her ribs that were in his way. Aurora was on the edge of consciousness and fervently hoped soon to escape the pain. As a new yet more violent pain flared up, she opened her eyes and saw how Molag had bowed his head in the hole and looked with his evil eyes up to her. For a moment he lifted his head again and smiled at her, then he opened his mouth and a row of razor sharp teeth appeared. He lowered his head again and bit into her heard. A burning pain exploded in Aurora and it felt like the sharp teeth where driven deeper and deeper in her heard with every beet it took. Desperately it tried to free itself, with no success. A moment later, Molag Bal rose from the bed and waved his hand, a black robe materialized around his naked body. He looked down on her and grinned. After that he left the room.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aurora looked down her body and saw the gaping hole in her chest. Finally she lost consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I got a question for you guys:  
> What do you think of the name of Aurora. In German it fits perfectly, but when I translated a Chapter where the English word aurora was used, I noticed it was slight irritating for me. SO I thought I would ask you if I should change the name for the English version.  
> Just leave me a comment and I will do as you wish.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN:  
> So like I said, here we go, Chapter 3.  
> Since I make good process I probably will publish the next chapters on Friday. I hope you enjoyed the story until now.   
> If you have Ideas what Aurora may face trough her journey, just comment and I will think of it.  
> And of course reviews are always welcome.  
> Have fun. :)

Chapter 3: 

Aurora slowly opened her eyes, she felt thirsty, endless thirst. The pain that emanated from her chest almost faded into the background. She was back in the altar chamber of Molag Bal. The Vigilant of Stendar examined the altar. He seemed like he hadn’t noticed her absence at all. To her surprise, she stood on the spot where she had faded from Nirn. She looked down at herself, she was completely naked and covered in blood. The hole gaped in her chest, was there as she remembered, accompanied by countless scratches and cuts that covered her body.

Thirst.

Thirst was the only thing she could think of, but her mind told her that she should take care of the hole in her chest. It was a miracle she was still alive. She took a step further into the room and suddenly was overflowed the pleasant feeling of warmth, it radiated from the body of the Vigilant. She took a step in his direction. She could hear his heartbeat, felt the blood flowing under his skin. It sounded tempting.

Thirst.

No, blood.

Blood.

She gave in to the instinct and jumped in front of the Vigilant. He was completely unprepared, before he knew what was happening, Aurora had dug her fangs into his neck and drank his blood in greedy gulps. With each sip she felt the pain lessen. She felt better and stronger. After she drained him, she let his dead body drop to the ground and looked at him. Her mind was clear.

Her clear mind remembered what had happened. Pain shot through her at the memory. When it ceased, she was surprised that she was as painless as never before. Aurora looked down on herself and found all cuts and scratches gone and the hole in her chest was only a surface wound that healed completely while watching. After about ten seconds, she looked at the spot where Molag Bal had hurt her and saw only red, tender skin.

She ran her tongue over her lips and felt that still was blood on them. It tasted just as it should. Neither good nor bad. Right. Your tongue collided with one of her fangs and she winced. That was what he had made her to, a vampire? Why would he do that?

Aurora had the feeling that the mere proximity to the altar clouded her thoughts. She had to get out of here. She carefully pulled the Vigilante’s robes off and slipped into the much too big clothes. She had to get out of here. When she came to the exit of the chamber, a kind of cage emerged from the ground and locked her. A moment later she was listening to the obnoxious voice of Molag Bal, Aurora was happy to have the robe she was wearing now.

"You survived, gratifying," he said and paused. Aurora crouched on the floor and tried to be as small as possible.

"What more do you want?" She asked, sobbing and trembling with fear.

"Nothing, I wanted to see if you would accept my gift. You are now a pureblood vampire, a lord among your kind. The curse of Hircine that had imposed on you is wiped out. Stay alive you have potential ".

The cage disappeared and Aurora began to run, she ran as fast as she could and felt the world blur around her. When she came into the streets of Markarth, she found that it was already day, something was wrong with the time in that cursed house, she was convinced it would still be night. Afraid Aurora looked up, a cloud covered the sun. She did not know much about vampires, but the sun was not good, about that she was sure.

Now slowly, to not attract attention, she made her way to the tavern. Without warning, a gust of wind swept the cloud over the sky and the sun beamed directly down onto the city. Startled Aurora lifted a hand to protect herself, just to notice she felt a slight pain and not inflamed herself. She moved the last few meters to the tavern and walked inside, head bowed. Without to greet bartender, she made way into her room and searched her belongings that were still there for new clothes and a coat with a hood, so she could protect herself of the sun. From her backpack a disgusting stench went into the air, which made her fangs grow slightly. She felt her instinct telling her that she should attack. Finally, she had found her spare clothes and dressed. Her backpack stank so much that she decided to leave it and break up immediately, to go as far away as possible of this house, of Molags altar.

Without a look back, she left Markarth undetected and went on her way, although shen’t not know where. Back to Whithrun was no option, the companions would hunt her down for what she was now, she also didn’t wanted to drag her family to the danger of hosting her.

She was gone half an hour when she came to a bridge, she felt the immense need to wash and get rid of Molag Bals smell that still clung to her.

On one of the riverbanks she could see a cave. She quickly jumped off the road and ran with her new vampire speed to the cave.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here is Chapter 4.

Chapter 4:   
  
When Aurora was about hundred meters in front of the cave, she saw two figures standing in front of the entry. She could hear their heartbeat when she concentrated. With a great jump, she suddenly was within reach of the two men. They had heard her soft landing, but absolutely were not quick enough to defend themselves against her. The first took a blow of her fist to his face, she felt his bones broke under her vampire strength. The second one was grabbed by the throat and lifted into the air. With a quick pressure of her hand she snapped his neck.  
  
A bandit cave, at least they were easy prey.  
  
Without any hesitation, she made her way into the cave. She was surprised at how well she could see in the dark. In front of her, just behind the cave entrance, a small waterfall made its way down a wall. It was the only way further into the cave. A framework made of long wood pieces made it possible to reach the upper riverbed dry footed. A single man stood on top of wood construction and seemed to keep watch over the inner entrance. He hadn’t noticed her. With a little jump, Aurora landed on the railing of the framework, in front of him.  
  
He stared at her with anxious eyes. Aurora could feel his rising fear. He took a breath to call for help, but before a sound could leave his lips, she had ripped out his throat with her teeth. Without watching his dead body fall to the ground, she let her instincts rule her doing, and stormed further into the cave. She killed everyone without any hesitation, with the mere power of her hands and jaws.  
  


  
As Aurora opened her eyes, she found herself laying on the ground, in the middle of a bloodbath. Dozens of men, mostly Nord and some elves lay dead on the floor. Some had missing limbs, others had a bite mark on the throat or had a broken neck. Shuddering Aurora got up. She saw a small lake in the middle of the cave chamber. When she started walking the disgusting smell of Molag Bal, that still radiated from her body, hit her face.  
  
Without thinking twice she dropped into the water, dressed as she was. She began to wash her hair, as she had always done. As she did so, her eyes fell onto her reflection in the water. She flinched and jumped out of the water, with her back against the rear wall of the cave. Her once icy blue eyes were now red ruby eyes, with an elongated Iris in their middle. Their looked scary similar to cat eyes. Her blonde hair, just like her face where splattered with blood. From her mouth the last remaining blood of the bandits dripped.  
  
Incredulous she collapsed. What had he done to her? Why had he not just killed her? Molag Bal had taken everything she had, away from her. She could not return to Witherun, the companions would hunt and kill her if she would come anywhere near the city. Thanks to their beasts blood they could feel vampires already from a great distance. All she had was in this city, her family, her friends. Even if it would be possible to go back to the city, she didn’t want them to see her like this. Without being able to do something about it, she let the tears flow, but couldn’t bring herself care to about it. Slowly, she noticed that she was overcome by sleep.  
  
  
 _Heat_ _, unbearable heat._  
  
Cold, ice cold.  
  
Boring pain in her chest.  
  
Suddenly a fire that is spreading through her body and burning everything, the pain is unbearable.  
  
She opens her eyes and his face is the only thing she is able to see.  
  
Unbearable fear starts to rise in her and starts mixing with the pain.  
  
She hears his laughers as he withdraws from her field of vision.  
  
  
Aurora tore open her eyes and looked around frantically. The foul smell of Molag Bal stabbed in her nose and she felt her fangs grew slowly.  
  
Only when she had calmed down, she felt how they retreated slowly. She felt as calm as never since her transformation. She was able to think clearly and the first thing she wanted to do was to wash herself to not be reminded more often than necessary to him.  
  
After she had bathed herself extensively in the small lake, her clothes had stopped smelling as a rotting wolf as a bonus, she began to examine the bodies of the bandits. Since no woman was among them, her leather outfit she wore at the moment would have to be enough. In a chest that stood in the far corner of the cave she found a short sword. The blade was about two feet long and apparently was made out of malachite. The blade and the hilt had been elaborately worked out from the stone and adorned with some gold. The narrow blade looked sharp and had a slight but elegant swing on both sides of the blade, so it was slightly at the beginning of the blade. The sheath of the weapon was the exact opposite of it. It consisted of plain, black leather that fit in well to the appearance of her clothes.  
  
Aurora decided to take it in. She also found another small steel dagger which could be attached to her thigh thanks to some leather straps on the sheath. From the corpses of the bandits she took a total of about one hundred and fifty Septim and made her way to the exit of the cave. Her instinct told her that it still was day, but she wanted to check it anyway.  
  
As she had suspected, the sun was still high in the sky. Aurora had no desire to move in daylight. She had the presumption that she would stand out more if she protected herself from the sun, as if she would at night on the road, it also gave her the opportunity to think about where she wanted to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN:  
> So I got two questions for you guys:
> 
> First, which side in the civil war should Aurora take part in.   
> Stormcloaks or Imperial army or maybe something entirely different.   
> I got some ideas how she will act in this conflict, but your thoughts are more than welcome.
> 
> Second question:
> 
> What do you think of the name of Aurora. In German it fits perfectly, but when I translated a Chapter where the English word aurora was used, I noticed it was slight irritating for me. SO I thought I would ask you if I should change the name for the English version.  
> Just leave me a comment and I will do as you wish.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, like I said, here is chapter five, hope you have fun. :)

Chapter 5: 

After long deliberation Aurora came to the conclusion that it was best if she left Skyrim. She had earned a certain degree of fame due her membership to the Companions and her family, the Gray-Manes, in her home country and that was at the moment just for her disadvantage. So her final destination would be Bruma, the first town after the Cyrodiil border.

As she made her way back to the road and left the cave, she saw that perfectly clear night sky and the stars. In front of all was a big aurora. The two moons, Masser and Secunda, were fully and close over the mountains that rose high in the sky.

Aurora had to smile, it felt almost like Skyrim was trying to convince her to stay, but she had no choice, she would leave. When she was back on the road, she moved the hood of her cloak over her head to hide her red eyes, that where glowing in the night. Her first destination would be Falkreath, from where she wanted to go o Helgen and then take the Pale Pass over the Jerall Mountains, to finally arrive in Bruma.

She managed to travel a good distance that night. When Aurora saw the sky slowly turned pink. She started to look out after a shelter for the day. She could see a little farm standing alone in the wilderness, far ahead the distance.

When she was close enough, she could see that there where stables that stood on the side of the house. Aurora decided to hide in there. Inside the stable, she found some horses, behind a wooden wall she lay down in the hay.

 

She was waked up in the evening by someone who was with her in the stables. Carefully she looked over the low wooden wall. She felt the man's pulse before she saw him. The desire for blood started to dominate her thinking. She was glad to have fed so much yesterday. Otherwise, she probably wouldn’t have been able to resist.

As the North had left the stables again, she released her breath, she hadn’t realized, she was holding it. Her eyes wandered over one of the horses and she wondered if she should steal one. Horse theft in Skyrim was under heavy penalty, but on the other hand, she would be attacked anyway, if people knew what she was now. So without a second thought she swung herself on to one of the horse and galloped out of the stable and on the road to continue her travel towards Falkreath.

After two more days, she finally reached Falkreath. The city was empty, except for a few guards who patrolled the streets. Aurora estimated it was about midnight. She slowly became accustomed to traveling at night, although she already started to miss the sun.  
She dismounted from her horse, and behind the tavern, out of sight of the guards, scared it away so it wouldn’t be recognized as a stolen animal. She made her way to the inn. When she entered, she was surprised at how empty it was. The bartender behind the counter winked in her direction. Without to remove her hood, she made her way over to him and took a seat at the counter.

"Welcome to Falkreath traveler," he greeted her.

She nodded to him and avoided his gaze.

"How can I help you, a room or perhaps a good mead?"  
"A room," Aurora said curtly.

"Ten Septim," the innkeeper replied also in short supply, obviously pissed about her rudeness and pointed to a door which led into a small room.

Aurora watched around the taproom, it was small, but after you have seen the mead hall of the Companions every other taverns are small.

At one of the tables a young Nord sat, she was certainly a year or two younger than Aurora herself. She suddenly felt a hunger that was equal to the thirst. She wanted this North, she wanted to seduce her and then feed on her. She had become accustomed to the thirst in the last days and it was easier to resist, but the combination of desire and thirst, was almost irresistible.

Slowly, she walked over to the table and sat down beside her on the bench. Her vampire instincts told her what she had to do and took control of her actions. Auroras thighs touched the woman next to her on the bench.  
It did not take much to seduce the young Nord, a little subtle touch of the hand, a promising smile, an understanding Gaze and she followed Aurora in her room, closed the door behind her and locked it.  
Aurora had to smile, it was so easy. That was probably the infamous art of seduction vampires controlled so masterfully.

As soon as the young woman stood in front of her, she bent down and kissed her full on the lips. It was not long until Aurora noticed how her fangs began to grow and pressed against her upper lip. Apparently the woman had also noticed it, because one moment later she was recoiling and looked anxiously at Aurora.

"Don’t worry, I'll try to not hurt you," Aurora said softly and looked sympathetically at the young Nord.

"You're a vampire, how can you say such things?" The woman's voice was fearful. At the sound of the voice Aurora's heart broke, she knew what she had to do to survive. She could see how the woman in front of her looked for an exit to escape her.

"Please, listen to me, I don’t know what I am or of what I'm capable of. You're here because I want to explore what I am. My instinct told me to do what I did and it tells me I should kill and drain you here and now. But you're here, because I wanted it and I am talking with you now, because I don’t want to kill you".

Aurora could see how the woman's fearful face mingled with hope, her face brightened a little.

"Please I don’t want to kill you, but I'll do it, if you are a risk for my existence," Aurora said, and looked pleadingly.

She didn’t know she could resist the thirst, but she would try, with all her will.  
Apparently she had convinced the young Nord, because she made a step toward her and kissed her gently on the cheek.

It was not long and Aurora found herself naked on the bed again, the young North sitting on top of her. She felt a tension building in her body, as she had never felt as a human. It felt entirely different than anything she had so far and yet it was familiar.

When she trembled over the edge, the desire to bite the other woman was just irresistible. She didn’t was in full control of her actions. Without fully knowing what she was doing, she had exchanged their positions with a quick movement of her hips. With her hands she held the hands of the other woman firmly against the bed. She felt no resistance in her.  
She kissed the pulse point on the woman's neck and creased it slightly with her fangs, then without warning, she bit in her neck. Her blood tasted sweet of her arousal. It felt as she began to fight back, she tried to push her away. The helpless attempts only increased the thirst, she was so helpless, so completely at her mercy.

A sudden slap in her face hit Aurora and she came back to herself. She saw the woman had hit her. With a quick movement she jumped off the bed and on the other side of the room. She could see that the woman was scared, her eyes were full of tears.

Aurora felt herself tears stinging in her eyes. She hadn’t managed to resist the thirst. What had Molag Bal made out of her. She was a monster.

The fear quickly gave way from the woman's eyes when she saw Aurora sink to the floor and start to cry. She carefully stood up and walked over to Aurora.

Aurora opened her eyes again when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You haven’t killed me," she said softly.

"I would have if you hadn’t stopped it," said Aurora, "What will you do now?".

"Since you will kill me, if I should jeopardize your existence, I would say you can go and I won’t tell anyone. But tell me. Will I become a vampire?".

"I do not know, but I do not think so," Aurora said, hoping that she was right, "But I'm afraid I must insist that you’re staying with me until I leave Falkreath".


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And like every time, you get two chapters. Next update will be on monday, have fun. :)

Chapter 6:

In the morning she left the tavern in company of the young woman and made her way to the general goods store in the city. Her cloak wrapped tightly around herself and hood pulled up, she opend the door to enter the store. She wanted to buy a pair of gloves and was therefore ok to take the sun for one day.  
After she had found a nice pair of black leather gloves, which sat tightly but still fit well and didn’t bring any problems while fighting, she made her way out of town still accompanied form the young Nord woman. She felt a lot more comfortable now, as the sun couldn’t hit her hands anymore and therefore she hardly felt the direct sunlight.  
She knew that she was different from other vampires. She had seen vampires burn in to ash as they connected with direct sunlight.

When they arrived at the city border, Aurora turned to the young woman and looked into her eyes.

"You may go now," she said and turned to leave.

"Thank you," she heard the woman say, then she was out of earshot.

Aurora had been running half an hour, when she smelled some people. They seemed to be fighting, according to the sounds she could hear. With vampire speed she ran the way up to the next street corner. Before her a hill was rising from the ground and the road ran over directly over it.

At the steepest point, some bandits had built a bridge over the road to rob passing travelers. Some people stood on the bridge and shot arrows at a single man who stood behind a ward spell in coverage. Aurora decided to help him.

She pulled her new sword from its sheath, which she carried hidden under her cloak and ran at normal speed to the stairs that where the way on top of the bridge. She used her vampire reflexes to dodge flying arrows. The first of the attacker dropped his bow and drew a dagger. With a quick stab in his chest, she defeated him before he had a chance to attack.

Aurora moved on to the bridge and came within range of another attacker. He lifted his great battle ax high above his head and struck with a force that Aurora surprised. Just with difficulties she managed to avoid the massive blow. She deftly slipped past him and cut off the third bandits head with a fast and well-targeted swing of her malachite blade that hit his neck directly.

She was distracted long enough, that the big Nord had a second chance to let his ax come down on her. In the last second she succeeded to bring her blade between the blade of the ax and her head to prevent her head was split. However, she lost the grip of her sword and heard it fall to the ground, fallen through a gap in the bridge down onto the road. Herself, she had gone to the ground as well. She could see how the man swung his ax again. In one moment, he would be vulnerable. When he had raised his arms far above his head, to complete his work, Aurora jumped from the floor of the bridge and grabbed him by the throat. His legs dangled in the air and he was gurgling as his hands tried to remove Aurora's hand around his throat.

She felt like she lost control again, but as long as it was against scum like him, she could live with it.

"Let me down, you little whore," he yelled at her, "I'll kill you".

Aurora didn’t bother to answer him, instead she hissed at him and showed her fangs. With all the strength she had, she flung the man over the railing of the bridge and jumped down right behind him him. He landed a good thirty meters down the hill, only moments later Aurora’s foots made contact with the ground next to him. She listened to his heavy breaths. He had to have countless broken bones. As she sat down on top of his jest, she could hear his bones rubbing against each other. She hissed one last time at him and then lowered her teeth into his neck and sucked all his blood out of him.

When she was finished with him, she ran as fast as possible back to the traveler, the one she actually wanted to protect, she was pretty sure to have her blood-lust under control now.

As she got closer, she saw that his face was drawn by fear.

"Don’t be afraid, I won’t do anything," she said soothingly. Or at least I hope so, she thought.

The man raised his head slowly and nodded in her direction.  
"Thank you, I suppose," he said carefully, "I'm from the Academy of Winterhold and am not accustomed to traveling. Although I can take care of myself, they were simply too many at once.” He said as he smoothed his robes. "Here, I think, that belongs to you," he said, handing Aurora her blade.

She nodded gratefully and took the sword.  
"What does a mage here alone, so far away from the Academy?" She asked curiously.

He looked like he considered his repay, then answert.  
"I am looking for the Grand Staff Of Charming. I have to bring it into my possession, I want exchange it against something personal. It is located in the Shriekwind Bastion".

Aurora had to admit that she had only asked to be polite.  
"Then I hope you will have well luck for your quest," she said, and began to move away on the street.

"Wait," the North called after her, "I could use your help. You've seen me fight. In the ruins should live some vampires ".

Aurora stopped, that was interesting, she wanted to know more, but she also wanted him understood that she wouldn’t do it him because of him.  
"And why should I care for this? Why should I want to fight against my own kind?"

"You are obviously not an ordinary vampire, it's day and you're fine. I also believe that you don’t know exactly what you are. You could see it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself. "

He had a sharp mind, no doubt.  
"How far is it to walk from here on?" She asked with a smile that showed her teeth.

"It's just up there," he said, pointing to a mountain, "Maybe half an hour away."

"All right, I'll go with you, but after that you're on your own again. Do not step into my way ".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, if you like the story leave a Kudo and a review. Your feedback is important


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: 

After a few minutes of walking Aurora looked towards the mountain and could see the old Nord Buildings. Some stone arches swung themself from cliff to cliff and gave an impressive sight. However, most of the ruin was in the mountain itself. She had been once before in such ruins. It was with Farkas, where she learned that the members of the circle were werewolves.

After about twenty minutes they reached steps that led on the left side of the road up the mountain.

"I think we should get to an entrance, if we follow these steps", Onmund said, but made no move to take the lead.

Aurora nodded and began to climb the stairs. She looked to the left, the mountain was steep and she could see Falkreath. Despite the distance to the city, Aurora's vampire eyes could see the people moving through the streets. Her senses were as clear as never before. She could feel every breath of the wind, heard every leaf rustle in the trees and saw each needle to the needle trees on the other side of the valley. She couldn’t deny that she was fascinated by her new skills.

A sudden noise on the right side startled Aurora out of her thoughts. A loud impact of stone on stone and then an unnatural sounding gurgle was to be heard.  
Draugr.  
In a quick movement, Aurora turned to the now open coffin and pulled her blade from its sheath. Just in time, she brought her blade up to block the blow of the Draugr. The fresh blood that flowed through her body, gave her the strength to blow the Draugr’s sword with her own one from his hand and then pulling him with her free left hand to her. The movement threw him over the railing of the stairs, with a gurgling noise the creature fell to its deaths.

Without taking another look after Draugr, Aurora started to continue to walk the path ahead of her. She felt that Onmund was following her, she could hear his heartbeat and feel his body heat.

Another set of stairs on her right led further up the mountain. At the upper end, an old door could be seen. The pattern on it reminded Aurora of an eagle or a dragon. With her sword drawn, she made her way to the top.  
Another Draugr rushed suddenly from left in her direction, but this time she had noticed it in time, and could kill it with a targeted blow in its neck.

"Looks like we’re coming through this door into the ruin," Onmund said.

"You have a real talent, to determine the obvious," Aurora replied to him with a slight smile on her lips.

The heavy doors could be opened surprisingly easy, as if they were used regularly. Perhaps the mage was right and vampires lived here. Maybe she would finally find out what she was.

A strong wind was blowing in to her face. Behind the door a small hall stretched out, in its middle a big, thick stone pillar that carried the weight of the mountain above. Over the entire width of the room, steps led down and eventually led to a small opening at the end of the hall.  
Carefully Aurora began to move downwards.

"Are these ruins are full hidden mechanisms and traps, be careful" she whispered to him.

When they reached the end of the hall, the door trough which they were originally come, was about ten meters above them. The passage they had entered was narrow and low. It looked more like a cave than a ruin. After a few corners, a stone wall apeard in front of them. Onmund stepped forward and moved toward the wall. He looked at it and turned disappointed to Aurora.

"Looks as if it were a dead end," he began to talk.

But Aurora wasn’t listening, she had now also approached the wall and ran her hand over the rock. Suddenly, the wall moved and disappeared into the ground. Behind the wall another little hall was to be seen.

Reluctantly Aurora stepped through the opening and looked around. On the left, another passage opened. On the right side, the hall lasted until around a corner, there a door was blocking the way.

"We go right," Aurora said, "Right leads upstairs. Apart from the left passage the smell of fresh blood spreads through the air. ".

"As you wish, I will follow you".

To Aurora's astonishment the door was not locked and could be opened without problems. A staircase led upward and opened into a huge hall. The path led on the left side of the round hall to the other side. On the right side of the narrow ridge, the ground was opening in an about a hundred meters in the depth. On other levels, some skeletons ran around and patrolled their ways. Apparently, there were really vampires here, or at least other necromancers.

When they arrived on the other side of the hall and entered the new corridor, she noted that their way was blocked. A large iron gate reached from the bottom to the top of the hallway. Slowly Aurora made her way to the gate to exam it more closely. Carefully she placed a hand on one of the grid struts, but nothing happened. With both hands she griped a bar and tried to get it to move, nothing happened.

"I got a switch her, maybe it opens the door," Onmund said.

"Don’t touch it", Aurora called, but it was too late.

The gate opened. Relieved Aurora turned to Onmund to tell him that he could come, when suddenly fire beams shot from the ground. Only with a great leap backwards, that carried her through the still open gate, she could avoid the flames. With a heavy blow, she bumped her head on the doorway and landed just a few meters behind the Gate on her back. The last beam had hit her arm, but thanks to her leather jacket did no damage.

When she got up, she touched the back of her head and found blood on her hand. She could see how Onmund carefully pushed himself through the gaps between the flames and came to her.

"Never do this again," she hissed at him and showed her fangs.

Onmund looked down and said nothing.

"Be focused, I can feel a powerful vampire, he is very close. And since I can feel him, he probably knows we are here, "Aurora said in a gentler tone.

Onmund nodded at her and gathered Magica in his hand. Aurora moved her focus towards the door, which blocked the view into the neighbor room and pulled her sword from its sheath.  
With a targeted kick on the lock, the door flew open, revealing a further hall behind itself. A podium was to see in the middle. An old vampire was behind it and smiled at her.

"Ah, I see we have a visitor," he said with a very friendly voice, "Say, what are you doing here?".

"I want to know what I am," Aurora replied.

She could see his eyes wandered to a book that was on the podium in front of him.

"Ah, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we cannot accept vampires in our rows that were so recently turned as you, my dear".

Aurora could feel he was getting ready to attack them without thinking, she jumped without any trouble the twenty meters that separated her from the other vampire and landed gently on her feet in front of him. She could see a scared look in his eyes, then he attacked. His magic was strong, but couldn’t harm Aurora. She felt as he tried to absorb her life energy. She thought about how handy it would be to attack him in the same way as a reddish light began to glow in her left hand.  
She held out her hand toward him and imagined that his energy was transferred to her.  
To her surprise, the magic felt like perfectly normal Destruction magic. It didn’t took long, because the vampire Master was weakened from her spell, before she could manage to set a blow direct at his throat und pierce. His body disintegrated to ash in front of her eyes and was blown away by the still strong blowing wind. What remained was the empty armor he had worn.

She turned to the podium and looked at the book that was laying there.

Opusculus Lamae Bal

Lamae Bal? Why did this name sound familiar to her? Lamae Bal. Like a light that was turnd on, she remembered. Lamae Beoflag the first vampire, her mother had once told her about her. Satisfied to have found something that might be able to give some information, she put the book in to her pocket. The staff they hadn’t found yet, so Aurora began to move again.

At the end of the hall, which was otherwise empty, a wooden spiral staircase rose in a shaft leading upwards. After several minutes they silently walked up the stairs, they reached a further hall. A broad path led through it and ended in front of a large stone wall, which was described with strange symbols.  
Left and right of the path stylized dragon heads rose in the air and backed it up on the way to the wall. A stone sarcophagus stood in front of the wall and opened as they approached. A Draugr started to climbed out of it and attack them.

As Aurora approached the wall, she had forgotten the attacking the Draugr, she started to hear whispering in her head, with each step in the direction of the Wall it was getting louder and clearer.

GRAH.

She felt her entire concentration shifted to the wall. An indescribable power went through her. When the Draugr was inn striking range to her, her hand jerked forward and broke its neck in one quick motion.

GRAH.

Suddenly, blue light started to spread from the wall and pulled her towards it. Aurora put a hand on the now glowing words on the wall. She couldn’t read it, but she knew what it meant.

GRAH. Battle.

She felt deep down that she would never again forget this word.

"I found it," Onmund called to her and held the staff triumphantly in the air.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

"Did you see that?" Aurora asked incredulously, looking at the now quiet wall.

"What do you mean?" Onmund replied.

He hadn’t seen and heard anything. Did she imagine the whole thing?

"Nothing, forget I asked," she said quickly to not raise suspicion, but Onmund seemed to be very absorbed by his staff, so he didn’t seem to be suspicious anyway.  
"Let's go, I want to get out this scary cave," she ended.

"I thought vampires would feel comfortable in such places," he quipped.

"As you've probably noticed, I'm not a normal vampire," she answered him, perhaps a little too bitter, but she had meant what she had said before. She didn’t know what this wall was and didn’t want to risk another encounter with a deadric prince.

"All right, let's go," he replied, and made his way back to the spiral staircase.

 

When they were back at the intersection, where they had left the road between Falkreath and Helgen, they stopped and Aurora looked up in to Onmunds face.

"From here on, we will part our ways, I will go further towards Helgen and you will disappear in the other direction," she said curtly and turned to leave.

A sudden touch on her shoulder made her turn around and a moment later she had a hand around the North mage’s throat.

"Woh, slow down. I'm sorry. I did not mean to offend you, "he said carefully.

He was lucky that she hadn’t exerted any pressure to his neck, she thought, and let go of him. She suddenly realized that he was the first man who had touched her, out of combat, since her experience with Molag Bal. A painful memory flashed through her mind.

Claws on her skin.

"Sorry," she said and looked down to hide her emotions in front of him, "What do you want?".

"I wanted to thank you. Without your help I wouldn’t have managed to salvage the staff ".

Aurora nodded at him and turned to walk up the hill towards Helgen. She half expected Onmund to say something more, but then she felt how his heartbeat distanced itself faster and faster away from her.

 

In the evening, Aurora paused, she was exhausted from her traveling in the daylight. She had put half the distance to Helgen behind her and wanted to leave Skyrim before the end of the next day. She was hopeful to reach Helgen this night.  
She sat down under a large pine tree and leaned her back against the trunk. Now she had the time to look at the book she had found.

The cover was plain and chamfered in leather. A narrow gold stripe edged the book cover. Carefully she opened the book and opened the first page.

Opusculus Lamae Bal ta Mezzamortie

by Mabei Aywenil, Scribe

A brief account of Lamae Bal and the Restless Death

Translation by University of Gwylim Press; 3E 105

 

As brighter grows light, darker becomes shadow. So it passed that the Daedra Molag Bal looked on Arkay and thought the Aedra prideful of his dominion o’er the death of man and mer, and it was sooth.

Bal, whose sphere is the wanton oppression and entrapment of mortal souls, sought to thwart Arkay, who knew that not man, nor mer, nor beastfolk of all Nirn could escape eventual death. The Aedra was doubtless of his sphere, and so Molag Bal set upon Nirn to best death.  
Tamriel was still young, and filled with danger and wondrous magick when Bal walked in the aspect of a man and took a virgin, Lamae Beolfag, from the Nedic Peoples. Savage and loveless, Bal profaned her body, and her screams became the Shrieking Winds, which still haunt certain winding fjords of Skyrim. Shedding a lone droplet of blood on her brow, Bal left Nirn, having sown his wrath.

Violated and comatose, Lamae was found by nomads, and cared for. A fortnight hence, the nomad wyrd-woman enshrouded Lamae in pall for she had passed into death. In their way, the nomads built a bonfire to immolate the husk. That night, Lamae rose from her funeral pyre, and set upon the coven, still aflame. She ripped the throats of the women, ate the eyes of the children, and raped their men as cruelly as Bal had ravished her.

And so; Lamae, (who is known to us as blood-matron) imprecated her foul aspect upon the folk of Tamriel, and begat a brood of countless abominations, from which came the vampires, most cunning of the night-horrors. And so was the scourge of undeath wrought upon Tamriel, cruelly mocking Arkay’s rhythm of life and death through all the coming eras of the et'Ada, and for all his sadness, Arkay knew this could not be undone.

 

With a shiver Aurora put the book aside. Lamae Beoflag had also been raped by Molag Bal. If, as it was shown in the stories of her mother and the book actually, she had been the first vampire, then Molag Bal had therefore not performed this ritual for the first time. At Lamae a single drop of his blood was enough to turn her. Or put it another way, why had he treated herself so much worse. The only answer she knew it had given him pleasure.  
Shuddering, she pulled her knees to her chest and just sat there. It took her a few moments to capture what she had learned from that book.

Her thoughts began to wander again. The Blood Matron. She had heard that name before. After all she knew, she was a vampire lord who lived well into the second era. She had never had the thought that she would be identical to Lamae Beoflag. In addition, she never thought that she would learn it from a book of the Imperial University. However, the fact that there were vampires in Skyrim, was steadily pushed into the background and replaced by the daily worries of everyday life.

Aurora felt her colder as normal and began to tremble. She had to continue and find something to "eat". The day in the sun had weakened her, although she had satisfied her thirst this morning.

Slowly she got up and walked the ten meters back to the road. The night was beautiful again and on the sky was a weak aurora to be seen. The twin moons gave her the light to see everything just as good as in daylight.  
It was as she had expected, after only a few more hours of traveling, she reached Helgen.

So far she hadn’t come across someone to feed on. She stood in front of the locked gates and wondered if she should risk it to go inside.  
After briefly weighing, she decided to walk around the outside and to travel directly towards the Pale Pass. She certainly would meet a caravan on her way.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: 

Aurora was since three days in the mountains that separated Skyrim and Cyrodiil. After the first day she had lost the road, as a violent weather had set lots of clouds and a dense snowfall had started, which still lasted. Since four days she hadn’t drunk a drop of blood. She felt as she slowly began to lose her control and became a wild beast. The next person she would see was as good as dead. Aurora felt, as if the cold crept from day to day more in to her bones, she suspected that it was related to the lack of blood.

A large mountain loomed before her. On the north side, she was facing, she could see a glacier, that made its way down in to the valley, on which slope they stood. On the eastern side of the mountain a mountain saddle could be seen through the thick snow.  
At least the snow kept the sun at bay, Aurora thought. She didn’t know if she would still think clearly, if she would have been exposed to the sun for three days.

After three hours full of heavy steps through the soft, deep snow, she reached the highest point of the saddle. In front of her lowland was spreading whose end she couldn’t see. The snow began to dissolve and a strong gust of wind swept the clouds away in to the mountains At her feet, perhaps a day's march away, she saw a city at the feet of the mountains. If she wasn’t mistaken, it had to be Bruma.

Her eyes wandered down the slope of the mountain. It was steep, but she thought she was able to climb down safely. Directly on a terrace far down the mountain she spotted a ruin. Your vampire eyes allowed her to see several black and gold clad people down there.

Quickly she began the descent.  
When she was about a hundred meters from the ruins, she could see that their where elves. Some wore magnificent golden armor and were heavily armed, others wore a black robe with a hood. She recognized the uniform immediately. Thalmor agents.  
She could understand what they were saying:

"Keep looking, they could be here. We must find them, " one of the elves in black robes said.

"Sir, we don’t even know whether Delphine or Esbern are here," another Elf answered.

"If they're not here, we may find an indication that they were here and they may still appear. We have clear instructions from ambassador Elewen. She wants the fastest possible apprehension of the traitors, " the first elf said.

Her mind told her she had to be careful, after all, Altmer were gifted mages and Bosmer very skillful archers.  
However, she was overcome by her thirst and started to run. With a large jump she landed on top of the wall of the ruin that has obviously been a fortress once. Her thirst gave her immense strength. The first of the Thalmor, who noticed Aurora, was dead within seconds, with a broken neck he fell to the ground. The impact of his armor caused a loud, metallic percussion.

One of the magicians made himself ready to attack and collected magica in his hand. A hot shot of flames flew in Aurora’s direction, as she fed him. With a hard blow to the man's chest, she threw him back. The High Elf flew back several feet until he finally hit against a brick wall on the floor.

A cry was heard, which released the three remaining Thalmor from their torpor.

"Kill the Whore" the leader of the elves cried.

Aurora hissed in his direction and showed her fangs.

"Kill the monster," the man repeated and began to bombard her with fireballs.

She deftly dodged the attack, at the same moment she felt the body heat of a Thalmor come closer from behind. In one fluid motion she turned around and grabbed with her left hand the approaching mace. She got a grasp at the handle and felt the fingers of the elf breaking under the pressure of her hand. With a clanking noise the mace fell to the ground and he was showed in her direction with Aauroras free hand. With her left arm she grabbed him around his middle while she tore of the helmet of the man with her right hand. Brutal she tilted his head to one side and lowered her teeth into his neck.  
While she drank from his blood, she turned back to the attackers and used the dying Thalmor in her arms as a shield until she couldn’t suck more blood from him.

Before his body reahed the ground, Aurora had pulled her blade and struck a fired arrow aside. Previously, she would not have seen it coming, but with her new reflexes it was a light task for her to react in time.

It took only a few minutes, then all of the attackers were dead. Slowly, she walked to the fallen mage and wiped her sword on his robe to get rid of the blood that covered the blade. She could see how his face was showing his disgust when he looked at her.

"You are a disgrace to all Bretons," he said with an evil sounding voice.

"You know nothing," she said coldly and bit him directly in the artery in his neck.

 

When her thirst was satisfied, Aurora began to search the dead bodies. For a brief moment she was tempted to take the armor of the one woman that was under the Thalmor, but quickly decided against it because she was sure that there were more Thalmor in the city and she didn’t want to stand out unnecessarily. By the leader, she had beheaded with a targeted strike of her sword, she found a sword which was obviously not made in an elven forge, since it did not consist of Moonstone.

Carefully, she pulled it out under the robe of the mage and looked it over more closely. The blade was made of multi-folded steel, was straight and ran at the end too narrow. The handle on the other hand seemed to be there from jade and reminded her distant of a dragon. The scabbard was made of wood and steel and was painted black. With two leather straps it could be attached to the back.  
The blade was unlike anything Aurora had ever seen. However, she could see a slight similarity in the manner in which the steel was folded. On a mission for the companions they had found an ancient Akaviri Katana and brought back to the owner. One of his ancestors had the a blade.

If the sword in her hands actually came from Akavir, then this ruin could only be the Cloud Ruler Temple, the ancient fortress of the Blades of the third era. She had read that the temple was mostly destroyed during the great war with the elves, and with it most of the members of the Blades in Tamriel.

Satisfied with her new weapon, Aurora fastened the scabbard under her cloak, so that the handle protruded beside the hood and could be reached anytime.  
Satisfied to be so close to her destination, she set out to take the remaining descent to Bruma on the road.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: 

Aurora found an old road that led down the mountain and ended in front of the Bruma city gates. The road was in bad condition, as if it hadn’t been in use for a long time and probably it wasn’t since the destruction of the Temple. The farther she came down, the less snow lay beside the road and the view was getting steadily clearer.  
Halfway to the city, she could see the white gold tower in the distance. The mighty tower in the center of the imperial city, had survived the war surprising undamaged. She could also see that what had looked from above like a flat, in reality was a country mixed out of hills and small mountains with a lot of forest.

When she finally reached the north gate of Bruma, she looked to her right, the remains of the infamous Oblivion-Gate that had threatened the city during the Oblivion Crisis and finally was closed by the hero of Kwatch while saving the city.  
To her surprise, the gates were open, and a great deal of coming and going people were to be seen. The civil war in Skyrim apparently hadn’t great impact on people's lives here. On the other hand, she wasn’t really surprised, after the journey, she had made.

When she finally walked through the city gates, she was greeted by a friendly guard on duty. She was wearing a uniform of the Imperial Army and looked sympathetic.

"Welcome to Bruma, if you're looking for a place to sleep, try in one of the two inns in the town," she said kindly.

"Thank you," Aurora replied with a small smile, always careful not to show her fangs and made her way into the city.

The city itself was divided into several levels. Directly to her right, the castle of the city rose into the sky. It was located on the top level of the city. In order to reach it from her current position, she would have to go up a wide staircase. At the level she was now on, large mansions were to be found, that probably belonged to the nobility and the wealthy of the city.  
On the second level were the local representatives of the guilds located. The Mages Guild had a house that catched her attention due the arcane energy that emanated from it.The house standing to her left was the guild hall of the Fighters Guild, probably the equivalent to the Companions.

At the lowest level, the ordinary houses and in front of the East Gate finally one of the two taverns could be found.

It was morning and Aurora had absolutely no desire to spend any longer than necessary in the sun.

When she had entered the tavern, she immediately felt the presence of another vampire. Her fangs slowly began to grow. She felt she was instinctively preparing to defend herself.  
Slowly, she took a seat at the bar and looked around. Suddenly, an older man sat next to her. He was a member of the Imperial people, and she immediately felt that he was a vampire and even a very old vampire.

"What are you doing in my territory," he asked gently, but dominant.

"I didn’t want to disturb you. I'm on the run from Skyrim, "she replied uncertainly.

"You were recently turned?" He asked curiously. As it seemed, he didn’t want to attack, even though he described the city as his territory.

"Yes, a little more than a week".

"You have an incredible self-control for such a young vampire. Tell me, who was your creator, he must have been very old and powerful? "He asked, still curious but friendly.

Aurora wondered whether she should tell him about her transformation, from what Molag Bal had done to her, but then decided against it. If he believed she had been turned by another vampire, that was fine to her.

"I was infected by a vampire, whom I met in a cave, he attacked me, but I could kill him," she lied.

"A pity, I would have liked to meet someone so powerful, you are truly amazing. Unfortunately, you have therefore no teacher who can teach you what it means to be a vampire ".

She began to think. Had he just offered to her to be his student? This was better than anything she had hoped for.

"You are right, I almost know nothing about what I am," she replied.

"If you wish so, I would like to teach you. You should learn of what you're capable of, "he said after a pause, with a smile that revealed his fangs.

"It would be an honor. But how should I call you? "Aurora replied with a happy expression on her face.

"My name is Marcus," he told her and held out his hand.

"Aurora," she said and took the handshake.

As they walked back to Marcus house in Bruma, she was careful to avoid any sun contact to not give him any indication of her specialty. She wasn’t sure if he could be trusted. Marcus wore a coat, under which he was hiding from the sun.  
Proficient he moved in the sun, but slowed by his coat. They walked around the great Church, loomed in the center of town, that was once dedicated to Talos, but now remained for the worship of all the left eight divines.

They entered a small house at the back of the church and she could see how Marcus stripped off his cloak and extended his hand to her shoulder to help her to take off hers. With all her power she focused on not to shrink back at his touch, as she had done with Onmund. She was sure that he wouldn’t be so easy to get rid of as the North.

"Thanks," she said and smiled at him.

"Not a problem, feel like home," he said, "In the basement I have always fresh blood if you know what I mean. And in this room is a guest bed ".

Aurora nodded to show him that she understood.

"Talking of food, don’t kill anyone in the town. Go outside of the walls to hunt".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are always welcome.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: 

Two weeks later: 

It was evening and Marcus had announced plans to Aurora to show her something tonight. Since she had decided to stay in Bruma, she had already learned a lot from Marcus. He had begun to teach her how she could resist the thirst and thus exist in civilization without to want to rip everyone’s throat out.  
The key was to always be good fed. And over time, Marcus said, she would get used to the burning thirst and it would get easier to hide it. 

Aurora had to admit that it was nice to have someone she could be herself, at least more than everywhere else. Marcus still wasn’t aware of her true origin and exactly like that, she wanted it for now.

So as she waited on the doorstep to Marcus hose, she thought of Aela. She had been her best friend. What would she say if she would see her like that. Sometimes Aurora regretted to have fled from Skyrim.

"Ah, you're on time," Marcus said gently, "I don’t understand what you’re doing outside in the day all the time?".

"I miss the sun," Aurora said. After a week of sleeping the whole day, she had noticed how difficult it was for her to live without the sun. She missed the warmth that radiated on her skin and the bright light. She couldn’t spend the entire day outside, so she tried to manage one or two hours a day.

"Well, let's go," Marcus said.

“How do we come through the gate? After nightfall, everyone who wants outside will be controlled." Aurora asked curiously.

"Listen carefully to me. As a vampire you've mastered a spell that conjures the people around you that you were a normal person. You can cast it in which you think about what others will see around you. Imagine how they look at you if you were human. "

"What about you? Will you think I’m human again? "

"No, the spell has no effect on vampires, so you can’t change your appearance with this spell, you need to foul the people around you. Be careful though, the spell requires a lot of concentration and Magica. I wouldn’t recommend using it in battle“ Marcus replied," come on, try it ".

Aurora did what he had told her. She tried to imagine how she was seen by the guards when they recognized her as a human being. She felt her magical energy flow out from her and in a large circle around. As another person entered the imaginary radius, Aurora felt the new presence.

"I think it works," Aurora said.

"You're good, but you need to concentrate, so you doesn’t let the spell fall in the wrong moment " Marcus replied with a smile that showed his teeth.

Without problems they were left out of the city and Marcus begun to walk toward the northwest.

"Where are we going?" Aurora asked curiously.

"Nearby is an old Ayleid ruin. The people here call it Rielle. Some vampires have settled there, they threaten our peace here. We will wipe them out before they become a problem and will lead the city led to higher security ".

She understood his logic, it was obvious. However, she didn’t expect that he would proceed so mercilessly to protect his existence.

Probably he had seen her thoughtful expression because he said something else.

"Do you have a problem with that?" His voice sounded slightly disappointed.

"No, I was just surprised. You welcomed me. I hadn’t thought that you would kill other vampires to ensure our survival. "

"We need to do whatever it takes, whether it means to kill vampires or to create new ones.“ He said seriously, looking at her with a determined expression in his eyes.

"How do I create another vampire?" Aurora Asked, following a sudden idea of her mind.

"Well, you have to bite the chosen one," he said.

"Obviously, but it must be more, otherwise your cellar would be full of vampires," she replied with a smile.

"You're right," he continued, also a smile on his face, "You have to actively decided to create a new vampire. It's more than to sip the blood of the mortal. Your victim must also get some of your blood. That is the reason why I believe that your creator was very powerful. You have taken over some of his power through his blood ".

That was interesting. She tried to remember whether Molag Bal had fed her some of his blood. She tried to remain calm as she sifted through her memories of him. She remembered everything just very blurry.  
But yes, he had his head stuck in her chest and looked at her, then he pulled it out again and smiled at her. After that he had bitten her in her heart, but he had done something different, he had inflicted a cut to her left arm with one of his claws. And when he had left the room, just before she lost consciousness, she had seen a similar injury on his right arm.

"How do I give my blood to a mortal?" She asked, forcing her thoughts back to Marcus.

"Every way you want. It is only important that it gets into the system of mortal. He or she can swallow it or get through a breach in the skin, it doesn’t matter. But do not forget, you have to bite the victim as well. This is part of the transformation as much as your own blood ".

Aurora nodded and walked silently beside him. She had finally learned a little more about what she was. Her transformation had so many similarities, to the transformation of a normal vampire, maybe she wasn’t that differed to Marcus as she had thought.  
But Marcus was over two hundred years old, he had to learn to control his temper, she had control over it almost as well as he did, after just a few weeks. What had Molag Bal had said when he followed her into his sanctum?  
You're a pureblood vampire, a lord among your kind.  
Aurora was at a loss. Silently they walked the rest of the way side by side.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: 

After about half an hour, Aurora could see that they were approaching a ruin. Obviously, the buildings weren’t built by human hands. The perfectly smooth surface of the still standing stone bows was like nothing Aurora had ever seen.  
As she stood next to a large pillar, she held out her hand and placed it on the stone. It was even smoother than she had expected. She barely could feel the gaps between the large stones that rose into the high.

"Concentrate", she heard Marcus.

He began to walk down a flight of stairs that wound themselves around a large column into the ground. After about twenty steps they stood in front of a door that set into the stone as smoothly as the rest of the ruin.

When Marcus drew his dagger from its sheath on his belt and slowly pushed the door open, Aurora took her new sword from its spot on her back and followed him into the ruins.

The underground part of the ancient elves building was much better preserved than the buildings on the surface. With amazement she saw how Marcus was moving like a shadow through the darkness. She had trouble following him with her eyes. Apparently he was a master at sneaking.

She felt the first vampire before she saw it. But even before she could react and attack him, Marcus had left her side and sneaked up to the vampire. With bare hands he ripped its head from its body. Shuddering Aurora watched as he slowly laid the dead body to the ground to cause no noise.  
Marcus was more dangerous than she had thought. She made a mental note to never upset him.

The next two vampires, they found in a large hall. On the ceiling huge chandeliers hang, illuminated with soul gems. The cold, bluish light let the hall appear in partial shadow.  
In the moment Aurora had used to look around, Marcus already had killed the two vampires. In the chest of the first a large ice spike pocketed from his chest and the second had a slashed throat.

"Watch me, and learn," Marcus warned her.

After two more halls, that were empty except for a few skeevers, they were now on the second level of the complex. A narrow staircase had brought them down.

The rooms in this plane were all kept much smaller than the large halls above.

"Come on, lead the way," Marcus said, nodding in the direction in which the passage in the darkness disappeared.

Aurora griped the hilt of her sword in her right hand and slowly began to sneak down the aisle. She felt Marcus a few meters behind and resisted the urge to turn around and see if he followed.  
She had never thought of herself as anxious, but the uncanny ruthlessness and efficiency Marcus had killed with, had intimidated her. She was sure that Marcus didn’t trained her to help her, but that he pursued his own goals.

She arrived in another room. A small altar was set up in the middle. A bloody corpse was laying on top of it.  
Aurora quickly looked around and discovered the first vampire sitting on a broken column. She drew her dagger from its sheath on the thigh and threw it with all her force in the vampire’s direction.

She could higher hoe it flew, and finally how the blade lowered itself into the chest of the target. With a loud thud the body hit to the ground behind the pillar.  
Only a moment later the second vampire jumped from a balcony above her. The sword, she still held in her hand, was snatched from her, and fell to the ground.  
She could take a brief look into the face of her attacker before he attacked her with a mighty swing of arms.

His face was a mask of madness. Aurora didn’t know what had driven him crazy, but if she had to guess it was the thirst.

She deftly dodged away from his arms and drew her malachite blade. With a smooth rotation and a targeted stab the sword dodged the attack and stabbed the other vampire in the chest. Her opponent staggered backwards, this moment of vulnerability using, she slit his throat with her sword. With a gurgling noise he collapsed and remained dead on the floor.

"Not bad," Marcus said, smiling at her, "We should go back to the city. Any questions you have, you can ask on the way back."

The fresh air outside the ruins was wonderful. Meanwhile, the clouds were torn open and the stars shone brightly down from the sky. Aurora felt a pang of homesickness flashes through her. But she had to smile at the sight of the stars. They would stay the same forever.  
Still the idea to see the same stars as a little kid from Whiterun was a good feeling.

The way back was quiet at first, but Marcus finally broke the silence.

"You must have questions. Come on, don’t hold back."

After a moment, Aurora replied.

"Tell me more about the magic I can use as a vampire."

"Vampires have a natural talent for destruction magic, especially the cold part of this school. You will notice that it is significantly easier for you to perform an ice spell than a fire spell. There is also the one spell that only vampires can master. It is the easiest one to use as a vampire. It absorbs the life energy of your target. Many vampires don’t need to learn it, but can use it instinctively. "

He paused and looked at her. Aurora nodded quickly, she wanted to hear what else he had t say.

"But as good a vampire is in the magical school of Destruction, the lack in the ability in using the school of Restoration is noticeable. I do not know if you've already tried, but you will need significantly more magica to use restoration magic as before your turning."

Aurora memorized all the information, her mind raced. All Marcus had sad to her, was new. Eventually, it could save her life.

"Do you have any questions? You may ask, what is not clear to you," he asked her.

She began to think again. The night in Falkreath popped in her mind, what she had felt when she was with the young Nord.

"What about ..." she paused and felt herself blushing. "… the seductive powers of a vampire?" She finally asked.

Marcus smiled.  
"You probably have noticed what effect you have on other people, as long as they don’t know what you are. Have you ever slept with someone since you're a vampire?" Marcus asked.

Aurora felt her face redden even more as more memories of Falkreath flashed through her mind.

Again, Marcus had to suppress a slight grin.

"You'll get used to it. It is part of who we are, of what you are. I'm frankly surprised, that you were able to control yourself that long. You have probably noticed that the drinking of blood is a strongly connected with emotionally events. If you are in combat and the adrenaline is flowing through your body your desire to feed is just as great as if you are intimate with someone. You only have to take care that you don’t get be discovered. In combat, it is simple, the victims are definitely dead, but if you sleep with someone and you bite he or she, then that will have consequences. You have to be sure to have your thirst under control or are ready to kill that person. "

Another question scored through Aurora head.

"What happens when a vampire drinks the blood of another vampire?"

Marcus smiled again.

"This is probably the most important question you will ask today. First of all, nothing. But if you kill the vampire with it, then you take a part of its power, provided he is more powerful than you," Marcus ended his explanation.

Aurora needed some time to process to all this information.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

One and a half year later: 

Early in the morning, Aurora stepped through the front door into Marcus house. By now it was summer again and the sun was rising early. Quickly she closed the door behind herself to not let the sun into the house.

In the recent months Aurora had traveled several times to the Imperial City and had searched in the great library of the Imperial University for other answers but had found frustratingly too little. The only new information she had on found was from a book that had been stored in a small closet and was easy to miss. From that book she had learned that she was not the only woman who had fallen as a victim to Molag Bal. They usually were called Daughters of Cold Harbor. The book also reported of the unusual sun resistance. The rest of it was filled with wild speculation about vampires in general.  
Although she had considered it unhelpful, she had stolen it from the library and brought to Bruma.

In the last few weeks Aurora had got the feeling that Marcus didn’t wanted her around anymore. He was cold and avoided to run unnecessarily often into her. She had the feeling he was up to something and didn’t want her to know something about it.

She closed the door to her room behind herself and let fall her cloak to the ground. Aurora had spent the night out hunting outside the city walls. Despite the warm summer very few people had been seen in the open air. She had the feeling that the people knew something about vampires in the area, because everyone she met at night was armed and apparently prepared to use the weapons. In the last week, she didn’t overwhelmed anybody without a fight. 

A knock on the door snapped her out of her thoughts and she got up. When she opened, she saw that Marcus was standing in front of it. He looked friendly, as always. But his eyes sparkled in a way, Aurora couldn’t describe.  
She took a step to the side, to allow entrance to him.

"You are a Daughter of Cold Harbor," he said in his friendly voice.

Aurora hesitated for a moment.  
How did he know? How could he know? She thought for a moment and then it flashed through her head. He must have found the book. What he had learned from it, he must have recognized in her abilities.

She said nothing but nodded to indicate that he was right.

"I'm sorry," he said.

What was he sorry about? That she was a vampire? What she had to endure during her turning? Aurora wished that he could talk straight away, just once. But to be honest, she didn’t want to speak with him about it.  
She turned off and sat down on her bed. Wearily, she began to lay down her weapons. She hoped that he would get the hint and leave.  
She felt his presence still behind her in the room. Angrily, she wanted to turn around and make it clear, when suddenly strong hands closed around her neck and she choked.  
Surprised, she tried to grab the attacker’s arms with her hands, but couldn’t reach them and grabed into thin air.  
With the left air she had in her lungs, she called for Marcus.

The chuckle in her ear was telling her it was Marcus who attacked her. 

The gentle mocking laughter let revive memories of Molag Bal. Almost Aurora could feel the freezing coldness and burning heat of Cold Harbor on her skin.

Suddenly she felt two sharp teeth pressing against her throat and penetrating her skin. Marcus hastily began to drink her blood with greedy sounds. Aurora knew she had to act quickly, otherwise she was dead. She could already feel her power fading. Luckily she had fed two people a few hours ago, otherwise she already would have lost consciousness.

With a targeted hit of her head she punched Marcus directly on the nose you felt him flinch.  
His teeth were still sunk in her neck so that he tore a piece of her skin out from her throat, while he moved back with his head.  
Aurora took a moment to refocus herself. After a few moments she took a defensive stance and waited for Marcus to attack.

When he stormed in her direction, her hand jumped forward and hit him directly on the sternum. With a thud, he flew back and through the wall of Aurora's room into the living area of the house.

She climbed through the hole in the wall and put her foot on his throat.

"Why?" She asked slowly.

"Can’t you say? Your blood is powerful. I’ve taught you to always think of yourself first," he said in his usual polite voice.

"Did you really think you could defeat me?" Aurora asked, pushing harder with her food down on his neck.

"I still think so," he said and grabbed her foot at the ankle it with both hands.

With a sudden jerk, she lost her balance and fell hard on her back on to the floor. Suddenly Marcus was back on her stomach, trying to sink his teeth into her neck again. With her feet Aurora gave him a hard kick below the belt and with a loud cry of pain he flew on to the stove. His clothes caught fire and burned his skin.

Aurora took advantage of his distraction and circled his throat with her hands. She felt like the fire that burned him, began to penetrate her leather armor.

With a strong pressure of her hand she broke his neck. A quick movement of her hand later and his head flew out of the kitchen into the living area. His burning hair fast set the rest of the living area on fire.  
Aurora had to make a split-second decision. Would she stay or flee?  
She looked down at the burning corpse of Marcus and chose to flee. The guards would search the basement and find out what Marcus was. She was now more than a year in the city and it was known that she was with to the now dead vampire.

She quickly made her way through the flames in her room and began to pack her things. After less than a minute she walked out of the burning house and down to the west gate.

Luckily it was still early in the morning and the streets were empty, Aurora thought while she pulled her hood deeper into the forehead. Without problems she left the city and started to run on the road south.

After she had brought some distance between her and the city, she sat down in the shadow of a tree and started to think about where to go now.

She had been stupid enough to use her real name and would certainly been wanted soon all over the country. The people were very paranoid when it comes down to vampires. So she had to leave the Cyrodiil, but where? First of all the thought of High-Rock, she was a Breton after all, or her father had been one. But to get there, she would have to travel through Skyrim, even near Markarth and she wanted to avoid at all costs.

Morrowind would be perfect, she had visited there as a child. Although she knew she would be noticed as a human of the Dark Elves, but it seemed to still be the best option.

To enter the land of the Dunmer, she would have to travel to Cheydinhal and cross the boarder there. She wasn’t sure how big the heartland was, but she estimated that it would take at least a week because she didn’t want to take the risk of traveling during day.

Satisfied and tired Aurora leaned against the tree and closed her eyes. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

Two weeks later:

Aurora looked around, the country she was in, was bleak yet beautiful in an special way. In the distance she could see the Red Mountain as it towered high in the sky, and surpassed all other mountains. From its top thin gray smoke flew and sank down on the sides of the Mountain, and looked very similar to the ashy surroundings. Giant mushrooms sprouting from the ground up to the high of a multilevel building. In some of them even homes could be seen. Aurora had been here as a child before, but hadn’t remembered how fantastic this country was. It was so unusual that she had difficulties to capture it.

In front of her tall, black walls where rising from the ground and a gate in it was to be seen. As she walked slowly on, towards the gate, always being careful to keep her hood in place, she saw some Dunmer guards standing in the entrance to the city.  
Aurora felt the thirst flaring up inside of her, she hadn’t drunk on single drop of blood in the last four days and it was getting difficult to temper herself. With much effort, she managed to build her illusion spell, so she would be let into the city. Although one of the guards had smelled really good, Aurora knew that she couldn’t attack him right there. She had to quench her thirst and to wait for the right opportunity, otherwise she would have to run away again.

Slowly, with open eyes and sharpened senses, she moved through the streets of Silgrad. In a small side street she saw an old Dunmer sitting on the ground. He was completely defenseless. It was not actually Auroras thing to kill completely defenseless victims, but her already low moral concerns were quickly supplanted by thirst.

Slowly, she walked up to him and looked down on his thin form. By now it was late at night and he slept. She could see that he was shaking with cold.

She stretched her arms out and grabbed him by the collar of his coat. When she pulled him up on his legs, she found that his weight was far too little. Suddenly he woke up and looked anxiously into her eyes. Now completely overcome by thirst, she lowered her teeth into his neck.

His blood tasted bland and thin, it reflected his appearance. When she had sucked, she sat his dead body back to the floor. Now that she could think clearly again, she realized that it was a poor man, a beggar she had killed.

Shaking her head, she turned away from him and looked back towards the main road. A small figure caught her eye. She could see despite the darkness that it was a little dark elf child. The boy was maybe five years old. His frightened look told her that he knew what she was.  
She would have to kill him. If she wanted to stay here, he had to be taken care of. She had no doubt that every moment he would run into the direction of the nearby south gate of the city to call for help.

Slowly she took a step toward him. He froze and didn’t move. She had a lot of her humanity lost since she had become a vampire, but was she really able to kill a child, simply because it was in the wrong place at the wrong time? Her instinct told her yes, she was able to. But her mind struggled against it.

Without realizing, she took another step toward him. Suddenly he started running and screamed for help.

"Help, bloodsucker! Here's a vampire!“ echoed his high voice through the city.

In incredibly short time the guards had rushed to him and he pointed at her. Aurora had just enough time to draw her sword from the scabbard on her back to deflect the first blow from a guard.

She managed to kill the man, but four more where by then standing around her. Instinct took over and she killed two more guards, meanwhile ten more where arrived. Although they hindered themselves in their number Aurora still knew that she was inferior helpless. She had to flee, the whole city guard was after her.

With a big jump she freed herself from the guards and began to flee in the direction of the gate. Suddenly twenty new guards came in her direction and where cutting her way.  
Aurora looked around. On her left she saw houses and a network of streets she didn’t knew, on the other side, the wall stood about ten meters in height. The wall was built of large rough stones and offered plenty of opportunities to climb to the top.

She decided to climb over the wall. In large jumps she began to climb up on the rocks. When she already believed to have made it, she heard a whirring sound and suddenly a burning pain in her right shoulder exploded. She winced and lost her grip. Luckily, her left hand had grip and she made it with a firm tug up on the battlements.

Suddenly a door flew open on her right and a soldier rushed towards her. Aurora surged forward and broke his neck it with her left hand. She cast a glance down into town and was just able to dodge a flying arrow. At the feet of the wall she could see the guards disappearing into the wall and apparently making their way to the top.

She would have to flee again, there was no other option. Forcefully she grabbed the still living man at the floor of the battlements and struck her teeth into his neck. She felt the pain subsided in her shoulder. Resolutely she grabbed the arrow with one hand and pulled it out.  
When she had drunk all the blood of the guard, she jumped from the wall on the plane and quickly started to run into the forest. Two arrows flew after her, then she was out of range of the archers.

Frustrated Aurora let herself sink with her back to a tree on to the ground. Not one a week she had been in Morrowind before she had made a mistake and had to flee again. It was simply impossible. Why had Molag Bal done that to her? She would be on the run for the rest of her endless life. Why couldn’t he simply had killed her?

 

Apparently she had fallen asleep, because when she opened her eyes again, it was dawn of the morning. But what had awakened her, was not the sun but the barking of dogs that approached her quickly.

Aurora jumped up and began to run. From the position of the Sun, she could see, she was running south west. She knew that it was the direction of border to Skyrim, but at the moment she had no other choice if she wanted to avoid a fight. Relieved, she noted that her shoulder had regenerated and only a little stung, as if she had sore muscles, was left. She quickly left the hunters behind and reached the border.

The entire way, she was running as fast as she could. She had never before forced herself to her new limits. But to her surprise, she felt no feeling of tiredness or exhaustion. She had traveled in less than half a day over a hundred miles to the border.

Now that she stood in front of the pass, which would bring her back in to her homeland, she felt the urge to return to Skyrim.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

The unending fall in the Rift welcomed Aurora back in Skyrim. It was still about half a day's journey to reach Riften, which was exactly her destination. Only a few times she had been in the city and was therefore relatively unknown there. Also she knew the Rateay, because she had accomplished a mission for the companions there one time. She thought it was the perfect spot to hide until she found something better in the city.

She honestly didn't know what to do once she was in Riften. But she was happy to be back in Skyrim after almost two years.

One week later:

Aurora sat at a small table, across from her there was an old man. In front of him on the table surface her sword was laying. The one she had found in the ruins of the Cloud Ruler Temple. With an interested expression he examined the blade.  
He had noticed Aurora, when she passed through the largest hall of the Ratway and he and saw her sword out of the little window in his massive door.

"How was your name was again?" She asked.

"Oh, my name doesn't matter, but I would be interested to know where you have found this sword," he replied with a friendly but distanced voice.

Aurora wondered if she should tell him the story. She decided when she told him nothing about her self, who and what she was, no harm would be done and maybe she could learn more about the blade.

"I've found it near Bruma," she said.

"Near Bruma?".

"In a ruin about two hours north from the city, if I'm not mistaken before the great war there was the Cloud Ruler Temple".

"You were at the ruins of the temple?" He asked incredulously, "Weren't there Thalmor?".

Aurora nodded.

"A patrol was there, they where searching two people. The names they called, were Esbern and Delphine. Ambassador Elewen obviously wanted them to be caught. "

Aurora could see how his face changed shortly. Concern was reflected on it again.

"Do you know why she is looking for them?" Aurora asked.

She could see that the man in front of her considered what to say. After one moment, he answered:  
"It is said, they are the last remaining members of the Blades", he said and began to examined at the sword in more detail. In the way, he held it in his hands, she could see that he was used to swords and weapons in general.

His movements were safe and experienced as he held the handle near to his eyes to take a closer look. She watched him a few minutes before she began to speak.

"How comes, you know so much about swords?" She asked.

"I've saw a lot on my travels, but no such thing as this sword," he said, and put it back on the table.

He lied, Aurora could not explain why she knew it, but he was lying.

"It was build on Akaviir, the Dragonhunters who came from there brought it to Tamriel. It is very old but unbroken strong. A wonderful weapon. A masterpiece of Akaviiri blacksmithing" he said.

He took the sword in his hand one last time, then put it back into its sheath and pushed it back across the table so Aurora could take it back.

"Take good care of it, it is a legacy that must not be lost."

She just wanted to address the fact that he had lied, when shouting got load outside in the hall and she got up to see what had caused it.

She looked through the small window in the door and could see a small crowd of people on the lowest level of the room. She opened the door and went down, always being careful to maintain her illusion magic. When she reached the bottom she saw an Orc standing in heavy armor above a corpse. She didn't need to look further to see that the dead body belonged to some vampire. The disgusting smell of his blood told her that I had to be a very young and wild vampire. Probably he had come down to feed, but had been too careless.

The orc began to speak.

"The Dawnguard is in control of the situation. Go on, nothing more is to be seen here".

Dawnguard? She had never heard of such a group, but jujged by the name, they clearly where some sort of vampire hunters. She probably would need to learn more about them.

By now it already was late in the evening, so she decided to venture up in the city to information herself about that organization. She quickly went back into the room of the old man, said goodbye and fastened her sword on her back.

The city streets were empty, as was it custom in Rifton, no one wanted the give the thieves guild more opportunities than absolutely necessary. She walked toward the Bee and Barbs, if she had to learn something about these people, then this was the right place to start.

On her way a guard crossed her path and spoke to her. Apparently it had to be very boring on his shift if he approached her so openly. She almost could see how hard he wanted to start a conversation with her.

"Have you heard, they want to call the Dawnguard back to life. Vampire hunters. Actually might be something for me", he said enthusiastically.

Aurora looked in his face, he was young, maybe eighteen years old.

"What do you know? About the Dawnguard, I mean." she asked him and beamed a beautiful smile in his direction.

"They sit in an old fortress, east of Rifton. Once they were famous vampire hunters, but now they are forgotten. Only a few people in the Rift remember them", he paused and took a nervous air. "You looks like it would be just the right thing for you" he said, looking at the floor. Aurora could see how his face turned red.  
It took a moment before he spoke again.  
"Do you think they would have a use for me?" He asked, hopeful.

Aurora had to suppress a smile. He was so naive. First his petty attempts to flatter her and then his question, so formed that she had to respond with a complement of him. If he knew what she was. At the end of her thoughts she couldn't suppress her grin anymore? Quickly she looked at the floor, so that he couldn't see her teeth.

Apparently he interprets this as a sign of shyness, because she could feel his heartbeat fasten. When she had her face back under control, she looked into his exes and said:

"Surely they would have, especially for such a man like you."

His mouth dropped open and he seemed not to know what to do. Aurora gave him a pat on the shoulder and turned away from him. As soon as she brought her face from his field of vision, she had to concentrate to suppress laughter, so he didn't hear.

When she had reached the south-east gate of the city, Aurora looked back and saw that he still stood there, exactly where she had left him.

She began to move eastward, searching for the fortress the young guard had mentioned. Now that she was back in Skyrim, she absolutely didn't want to flee again, not if it was preventable. She would look at the Dawnguard once she found them and then decide whether they constituted a danger or not.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

After some searching, Aurora found the fortress of the Dawnguard after about halfway through the night. She had seen the orc who had killed the vampire on the street and had easily followed his track. After going through a small cave, a large valley had opened in front of her.

She had carefully made her way into the canyon. An effort she could have saved. Without to dicover any defense lines or traps she had sneaked to the fortress.

The sound of arrows hitting a practice target reached her ear. The orc she had pursued was also talking to someone.

"If you think you've got what is necessary for being a vampire hunter, then speak with our leader, Isran. He is in the fort", his voice was rough and determined.

"Very well," replied a weak and timid voice.

She probably also would have to go in, in order to determine whether these people pose a threat or not. Hopefully, they had no way to resist her illusion magic. Otherwise it would get really ugly in there. She quickly built up the spell and began to approach the orc. He had a crossbow in his hands and was about to insert a new bolt. She just thought about what to say to not rise suspicion, as he began to speak.

"I remember you. You were in the Ratway when I killed the bloodsucker down there. If you have come to you to join us, then go inside and talk to Isran".

Aurora nodded and walked up the hill, which led to the castle entrance on top of it.  
The doors hung heavy in their hinges and she had to press so hard she wasn’t sure if she would have get them open as a human.  
After a short transition, she was in a large, circular hall whose ceiling had a hole that let the sunlight in. Apparently a device with a mirror was hanging up there. It probably served to focus the light to one particular spot on the ground. Aurora didn’t want to imagine what they had done with this thing and what it was possible to do to a vampire.

Determined she went right through the down shining morning sun to rise no suspicion. An old man was speaking with a Vigilant of Stendar.

"We should have listened sooner to you Isran" the Vigilant said.

"Yes, yes, and now that the vampires are a problem you come here, again, and want our help," Isran replied. He had a strange accent she couldn’t place correctly.

"Now to you," he said, turning to her, "You look like we could have use for you. Why are you here?"

Why had she come? Apparently she couldn’t tell him the real reason for her presence. He also appeared as if he would throw anyone out of his castle who didn’t help him. But she had to learn more about the Dawnguard to say whether she needed to do something about these people.

"I'm here to join the Dawnguard, or at least I think about it," she said, still cautious.

"Very well, you are right here, I can say that. Also I got your first mission here," he said.

She nodded and listened attentively.

"Vigilant Tolan told me about a significantly increased vampire activity in a cave, what was its name again?" He turned questioningly to the Vigilant.

"Dimhollow Crypt, it is located about a day's march south of Dawnstar", Tolan replied.

"Exactly, you'll meet him there and find out what the bloodsuckers are doing there," he said again addressed to Aurora, "come back as fast as possible and report to me. Any questions?“ He asked.

"These vampires you mentioned, why are you so worried about them?" She asked, looking at Tolan.

"Among them, there were some more powerful than the usual vampires that can be found in Skyrim. We really need to know what is behind all of that and who they are," the Vigilant answered her.

"When do we leave?" she asked.

"I have to investigate something else on my way to the cave, meet me in two weeks at the entrance of the Dimhollow, until then we should both have made the way without time running out. If you are there early, don’t go in and stay hidden" he gave her as an answer and turned to leave.

"Well, feel like home. There's not much but you can take what you need," Isran said to her, gesturing with his arms to the hall.

Aurora nodded and began to look around.

She would like to sleep in a real bed again, but probably it was too risky to lie down and sleep here.  
As she began to look around, she could hear Isaran was speaking to someone, probably to the man who had gone into the fortress right before her.

"You there, come out of the shadows, so that I can look at you," he said in his loud voice.

Deeper into the fortress she found a forge. A crossbow was lying on a table. She began to think about whether she should take it, but decided against it because she wasn’t that good with ranged weapons. If she had to attack someone outside her arm range, she still had her magic, today even more than before her turning.

All in all, the fortress was in bad shape. Aurora was glad not to have to stay here any longer than necessary. So she also decided to leave after a few hours. She forced herself to walk without her hood until she was out of sight of the fort to leave no doubt in their minds, that she was a normal Breton woman. When she finally was around the corner and out of sight she pulled it up quickly over her head, so it covered her face and continued to walk towards Rifton.

She planned to hire at a coach and travel as quickly as possible to that cave. Powerful vampires were interesting, she absolutely had to contact them before the vigilant reached the cave.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

Dawnstar was a small village, no more. Aurora had indeed known that, but it still was a surprise to her. Since she was born in Whiterun and had spent the last two years in the empire, she had expected the capital of a Hold to be more.

The ride on the cart was fast, but also had been extremely uncomfortable. Luckily the sun had never shone freely down on her more than an hour at a stretch, but despite the clouds, it was summer and the days therefore quite long. But after two days she had finally brought it over with.

Thanks to her enhanced self-control, she hadn’t ripped the driver’s throat out and drank his blood. Now after two days she had had been exposed to the sun, the thirst had begun to burn in her throat. After she had been deposed on the outskirts of the city, she started to search an unseen place to hunt.

On a small snow covered clearing, it was a thin blanket of snow on the ground in spite of the summer, she found a single soldier of the Stormcloaks.   
Right, the Civil War.   
She hadn’t noticed much of the war on the way to Dawnstar. But it doesn’t matter, he was easy prey and what was more important, he was alone.

After she had strengthened herself again, she made her way into the city, she had to know where exactly the cave was and the easiest place to hear something like this was a tavern.

The Tavern, the Windpeak Inn, was the only such building in Dawnstar. The sun had just begun to disappear behind the horizon and colored the cloudy sky in red and orange. Aurora was unspeakably happy she was still able to see these beautiful moments. She didn’t know whether she would survive without the sun. For the warmth the sunshine brought of her skin, she happily took the slight stinging, which was triggered by direct contact with sunlight, in exchange.  
Her timing was good. If she could learn quickly where she had to look, then she would be able to travel at night and her skin was could recover a little bit.

The interior of the tavern was nothing special. A public bar with some tables and benches and adjoining rooms those were likely to be rented. Behind the counter a Nord man stood, he had shoulder-length auburn hair and wore the typical work clothes of an innkeeper.

Aurora sat down on a stool at the counter and waited for him to come for her.

"What'll it be?" He asked, as he stood in front of her. "A med and something to eat, or a room to stay at?".

" I would like to hear some information, if you can serve with that," she said, looking at him kindly.

"That depends on what you want to know, but if I can, I'll help you."

"What do you know? About vampire activity around here," she asked.

He thought for a moment before he answered her.

"South of here, there is a cave or some say it was an old grave. It was only a few hours before now, that two Vigilantes of Stendar were here and said they would go there."

The Vigilantes didn’t wait. Aurora was not surprised. The mistrust between them and the Dawnguard probably went deeper than she had thought. Perhaps she could use this fact when the Dawnguard should become a real danger.

"Can you tell me how to get there?" She asked the host.

"I can show you the location on a map, if you want," he said, pulling out a large folded piece of parchment under his table.

After he had shown her the position exactly, Aurora thanked him and left the village to the south.

 

She had found the entrance to the cave easier than she expected. She looked around, a thin but noticeable trace of blood led through the snow into the cave. According to the smell it was human. Carefully she entered the cave and looked around.

A narrow passage led into the depths. All over its walls, glow mushrooms were growing and set the cave into a cold, dim light. Suddenly the passage opened into a hall. It was that big, that to her left a small tower actually was built. From above a waterfall fell into a small river bed that flowed the cave and was melting the snow on its edges. Suddenly she felt the presence of vampires. She wasn’t able to say how many there were, but they were there.

A dog barked, but it sounded more like a mutilated roar. A shudder ran down Aurora’s spine. What twisted creature was that? Next she heard two voices that were slowly approaching her. Her fine senses could also hear the crackle of magic. If she wanted to avoid a fight, she had to become noticeable.

"Probably another Vigilant of Stendar" a woman said.

"He fought well. He killed two of our brothers."

So they were vampires, evidently the ones she was looking for. She took a step out of the shadow of the wall she was hiding behind and looked at the two vampires who came to meet her.

"Look who is here," the woman said, "Has Lord Harkon sent one more for the search or are you here to spy for him?" She asked.

"Nobody ever said, I've been looking for you and nobody sent me here, but …" Aurora began, but was interrupted by her opposite.

"Then you are at the wrong place," she said coldly and jumped at Aurora.

She was so fast Aurora managed to dodge her attack last second. If they just attacked with no more reason than her appearance, then what there were looking for must be very important or secret, probably both.

As it turned out, the two vampires were no match for Aurora thus her doubts at the beginning of the fight. Marcus was a lot more powerful and had made her much more problems.

As both vampires were dead and the dog had fled through the cave entrance, she looked around. The chamber in which she was one more way out but a gate blocked the way. She took a few steps towards it and stopped abruptly. Vigilant Tolan’s body lay in front of her on the floor. His body looked terrible. All his limbs stand away from his body in strange angles and two of his fingers were missing. Either he was tortured for information, or one of the vampires had taken great pleasure from torturing him. Most likely both was the case.  
Disgusted Aurora turned back to the gate and made the last few meters, so she could inspect the gate. As it turned out, it was locked in place. The design reminded her of the two old Nord-Ruins she had explored. If that was the case somewhere had to be a lever that opened the door. After she had looked around the cave, she thought the only place where it would make sense to seek was the tower in the left corner of the chamber.

A narrow staircase led up the slightly crooked building and ended at a window with view on the gate. An iron lever, which was decorated with small ornaments, was on the floor below it. She carefully pushed the lever to the other side, prepared for the case, she had triggered some trap, but nothing happened. A rattle from gears and chains was heard, then the gate opened.

Quickly she went down and stood in front of the now open doorway. The air that came up the pathway smelled old and stale. The rugged rocky passage opened quickly in a wide, high and long room, which had been built, judged by its appearance, by the old Nord. Left and right on the wall stone coffins were located, the majority of them were open. After two-thirds of the room a stairway went two meters into the air and gave the room a second level.

When she was few meters from the stairs, she heard footsteps in the upper part. She already was so close to the staircase, she couldn’t look over its top. She drew her dagger from its sheath, and took it by the blade to be able to throw it quickly. As quietly as possible, she crept up the stairs and saw the vampire. It was a woman who wore a leather armor, which was held in red and black. It looked thicker and probably offered more protection than Aurora's leather pants and jacket, but she had grown to love them over the years and had ordered a new and stronger set in Bruma.

She had noticed the presence of another vampire in the room and expected to find it here. Resolutely she reached out with her throwing arm and threw the dagger in the direction of the vampire.

The blade dug into the back of the woman's shoulder. With a loud hiss she turned around and stormed on Aurora. Before the woman could build a ward spell, Aurora had thrown two ice projectiles into her stomach and chest. With a pained moan she collapsed to the ground and died. Apparently her old appearance was only prove of her late turning and not the result of a long life as immortal. With one foot she turned the woman on her stomach and pulled her dagger from the shoulder.

On the second level a way led back in the direction she had come from, but ended up halfway and disappeared in a new passage into the rock of the wall. A gate blocked the way, but a pull chain was right next to the gate. Ready to avoid any traps, Aurora pulled the chain. The gate rose and disappeared into the ceiling. Either there had been no traps here or the vampires had defused all of them.

She quickly came to another staircase and followed it down a few steps. She found herself standing in a kind of tomb. Left and right grave niches raised and formed a square room, in the middle of four columns were standing and supported the celling.

Some Draugr fought against another vampire. The two Draugr were bigger than any she had ever seen. They wore helmets with some kind of horn on them and waved large grate-swords. She waited to see if vampire was able to overwhelm both of his opponents. After a brief battle, the vampire had managed to kill one of the two Draugr, but the second had brought his great ebony-sword over his head and let it go down. With a loud crack and then a short cry of pain, it spitted the head of the vampire. With drawn sword, she left her coverage and moved toward the Draugr. When she almost had reached him, he opened his mouth and an incredible power threw her back against the stairs. The shock wave was accompanied by a bluish shimmer and a curdling roar.

Aurora took a moment to collect herself and got back on her feet. Right as she was about to get up, the great Draugr swung his sword down at her. She just could avoid the blade, because she dropped back to the ground and rolled to the side, the stairs were digging hurtfuly into her back. His blade was hitting the ground next to her. That was setting an idea into her mind. As he lifted his heavy sword again, she rolled again and came to rest under him, then stabbed her Akaviiri blade between his legs upwards. After she had crushed through the resistance of the pelvic bone using their supernatural strength, she drove the sword up into his stomach until the hand-guard hit the armor of the Draugr. With a screaming noise, he collapsed and fell backward to the ground. Just in the last moment, she was able to pull away her legs, other ways his heavy and rusty iron armor would have crushed her bones.

While she ponded the dust off her clothes she stood up. This Draugr was more powerful than all she had encountered before.  
After some more narrow pathway and two vampires who attacked her, she reached a steep staircase leading upwards. Slow to make not any unnecessary noises she moved up and came to a small terrace. To her left she could look down to some other parts of the cave, on the other side a big gate, out of steel bars was to be seen. Behind it another room was it looked natural again, like the beginning of the cave.

In this room, a vampire struggle with an oversized frost spider. However, the battle didn’t last long and the spider was dead fast. Satisfied the vampire put his sword into the sheath on his belt and moved toward the door. Aurora quickly moved behind a corner to stay out of sight. The gate disappeared with a loud rattling in the ceiling and the vampire stepped out. She was no longer willing to take any risks and didn’t identify herself. She had accepted that if she wanted to know what was going on here and perhaps meet this Harkon, she must not hesitate to in her methods to come further into the cave.

When he had gone past her, she drew her dagger, sneaked behind him and slit his throat. With a gurgling noise he fell to the ground.  
After she had forced herself through the narrow space between the spider’s giant body and the wall, she could see a door in the wall. She carefully opened it and stepped into the gigantic hall. The free space was so enormous big, she could barely see the other end.

Aurora immediately heard three voices.

"From me you will learn nothing. I'm not afraid of you, Stendar is watching over me. "

A faint cracking noise was heard, then a woman said.

"Was that really necessary, probably he was able to tell us what we wanted to know, with the right motivation."

"We find what Harkon has sent us for and rise in his favor, this Vigilant had to offer nothing," answered a man.

At this moment, Aurora accidentally stepped against a stone, which was laying in front of her on the floor. With a loud clunk it sprang down the stairs to her left.

"What was that?" She heard the woman ask.

Only a moment later, she heard magic was cast, then several footsteps where coming up the stairs to her. Aurora did not hesitate and pulled her dagger and prepared herself. When she saw the first vampire, she threw the dagger. He met the man in the abdomen, but did not manage to penetrate the armor there. With a metallic sound it fell to the ground and slid down the stairs. However, it distracted the vampire long enough, to allow her to shoot an ice-spike into his neck.

Even before he had fallen to the ground, the woman had come in sight, with her was a Nord, who apparently was her thrall. Together they attacked her, she with sword and dagger, he with a big war hammer. The movements of the man were so clumsy that it was easy to dodge his attacks, but the woman was an entirely different matter. She was like a bee and stung her with her blades and managed to almost hit Aurora several times. Her thin leather armor had nothing to oppose against the sharp steel weapons. She managed to place some strikes against the woman, but failed each time at her good defense. She always managed to deflect Aurora blade at the last moment.

After some time, she decided to use another tactic. She waited until the North had raised his hammer high above his head, then attacked him. She met the shaft of the weapon just at the moment when it began to fall down. The force of her blow drove the head of the hammer away from her and above the head of the last vampire. With a sickening crunch, her skull was smashed. Startled, about the sudden death of his mater, the man dropped the hammer and start on her body. A moment later, Aurora blade separated his head from the rest of his body.

After Aurora had regained her breath, she began to climb down the stairs. She felt that no more vampires were nearby, so she thought it was safe enough to stow her sword again.

A narrow bridge led across the chasm that separated the stairs from a round platform in the middle. Surprised that she hadn’t noticed the abyss before, she looked down into the depths. She couldn’t see the end. Shuddering, she squirmed away and went on to the podium, which was standing in the middle of the large stone cone that stretched up from the depths. It seemed to be out of solid rock. No seams where to be seen. On the top some sort button was located.

Aurora put a hand on the knob and pushed. Too fast for her to react, a large iron nail shot upward. It had at least the diameter of your thumb. A flaming pain exploded in her hand as it dug through the midst of it. Aurora could feel blood running from her hand. She leaned forward to see where it disappeared. A small gutter transported it into the pedestal. Suddenly pink flames flared up around her and the sting from the podium pulled back and gave her hand free.

The pain in her hand quickly subsided and then disappeared completely, although the hole was still there. But Aurora had no worries, no later than tomorrow her hand look normal again would and be would be healed.

After she had moved the other stone pedestals so, that every one was standing at an end of the flaming path, the ground began to move. It sank itself into the ground something about two meters, only in the middle a large monolith was standing into the air.   
So she had definitely found something here.   
When she walked to the hexagonal stone, one side began to disappear in the ground. The stone was so hollow.

Inside was a woman. Her face was pale, but had nice features. Her lips were full but had also pale and emaciated, some small drops of blood flowed out between them. Her long brown hair was falling freely on her shoulders, except for two braids around her head. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be unconscious. Just as Aurora was finished with admiring her face she began to fall forward. Aurora succeeded to catch her and thus prevent her face hitting the ground.

The case free fall seemed to have awakened the mysterious woman, for she opened her eyes and freed herself from Aurora's arms. When she was back on her own legs, Aurora was able to see her eyes. The woman's eyes were red, a beautiful ruby and her pupils were reminiscent of those of a cat. Obviously she was a vampire.  
She opened her mouth and began to speak.

"W-Where is ... Who sent you here?" She asked, apparently still baffled by her unconsciousness.

"Whom you had expected?" She asked her.

That seemed to bring the woman out of concept. She thought for a moment, then said:

"Definitely not someone like me," her voice was surprised and hostile.

What did she mean not someone like her. Should she be awakened from a mortal? Aurora didn’t believe that. Since she was a vampire, there was one option left. Aurora had to check her suspicions.

"What do you mean, someone like you?" She asked.

"A daughter of Cold Harbor," she said dryly, "Did my father found once again someone he could sacrifice for his thirst for power?"

So she was also a daughter of Cold Harbor. That might explain why she hadn’t felt her presence. And who was her father?

"I don’t know your father, and I was sent here by no one. I've heard that powerful vampires are here and wanted to know more. "

"If that is so, I can help you in finding out what's going on," she replied, a bit more friendly, "I have to go home."

"Where exactly you have to go?" Aurora asked curiously.

"My family lived there for a long time, it is a castle on an island west of Solitude. I would bet there still live there”.

"Why should I help you get there?" Aurora asked. She wanted to know how important it was for the woman to get there, even if she had to admit to herself that she would help her, no matter what she was giving her n return.

"Look, you're came here to find powerful vampires and here I am. I'm like you, from me you can learn more than from all other vampires you could have found here ".

That was exactly the answer Aurora had hoped for. However, her curiosity wasn’t satisfied yet.

"Why were you locked up?".

She could see, the woman was considering what to say.

"I would prefer to not tell you, if that's okay," she paused and sighed, "Look, it's not that I ... at the moment I don’t know who I can trust. Bring me home and I'll know where we all stand. "

"Are you in danger?" Aurora asked concerned.

"No, depending on whom we meet in the castle, I'll be safe there."

The re-mention of the castle, reminded her of something that she wanted to ask first. If this woman was not sure if her family still lived in the same place, how long she had been there then.

"How long have you been in there?" She asked, pointing to the stone coffin.

"A good question, I do not know exactly. Who is High King of Skyrim? ".

"Something, one can argue about," Aurora replied, smiling a little.

" Ah, nice to see some things never change. Who is fighting against whom?".

"The Empire supports Elisif, she is Jarl of Solitude. Against them stands Ulfric Stormcloak, he is the Jarl of Windhelm ".

"Empire, which empire?".

"The Empire ... from Cyrodiil?"

"Cyrodiil is the home of an empire? I must have slept longer than I thought, definitely longer than we had planned. Come on, we must lose no time. "

"Any idea how to get out of here?" Aurora asked.

"Well, we could take the same away on which you came in," the woman suggested "By the way, my name is Serana".

"Nice to meet you. Aurora, "she said, holding out a hand.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I was so lazy with notes but I allays wrote them for ff.net and it felt like they didn't belonged here, but from now on, I will ad them into the story text so you will get the same informations as them. If there is something to say about AO3 specific things, I will ad a note.  
> And ofcouse evrything that is said in the A/Ns in the text is also for you :)

**A/N:**

**Here's the next chapter. I hope you will enjoy it. In fact it is a bit longer then the last one. I must say I really like to make them longer. The side effect is you only get one chapter at once, but I think that is ok since the content in this chapter would take three shorter ones.**

**WARNING: In this chapter there is a rape scene. I marked it with _"GgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgG"_ at the beginning and the end, so if you don't want to read stuff like that, you can skip it.**

**Thank you very much for the reviews and alerts, it means a lot to me :)**

**Now have fun.**

 

Chapter 18:  
  
As it turned out, it was no option to go back the same way, as the bridge had probably lowered with the ground around the coffin and now only a wide chasm remained.  
  
"This was your way in?" Serena asked and looked down into the abyss.  
  
"Well, my way here is probably not an option. Do you have another idea? "Aurora asked in return.  
  
She saw Serena was looking around.  
  
"On the other side, there is also a bridge," she said, pointing to the stone building, the swung itself elegant from one side to the other.  
  
Aurora nodded in agreement.  
  
"Well then, let’s try this path," Serena said, and grinned at her, the last remnants of the blood were visible again.  
  
Aurora was about to point it out, as Serena ran her tong over the drops and brought them into her mouth. She let out a small sigh and grinned at her again.  
  
"Your blood is really tasty," she said with a dreamy expression, and then began to walk towards the second bridge.  
  
When she moved in front of Aurora, she saw that she was swanking easily and apparently had trouble keeping up straight. Just before she threatened to plunge, Aurora ran to her and put Seranas right arm over her shoulder and her own around the middle of the old vampire to stabilize her.  
  
"Hey, slow down. We don’t want you lose consciousness again," Aurora whispered.  
  
"I'm fine, I'm just a little weakened by the lack of blood," Serena, gave her as answer.  
  
"How can you control so well? You were down here who knows how long, how can you keep the thirst under control? ".  
  
"First, I have to get some of your blood and it is powerful, that I can tell you. But most of all: Be glad you're not human. I don’t know if I could control myself with a mortal around. "  
  
Aurora wondered briefly if she should offer her to drink from her blood, but then remembered what Marcus had told her about the intimacy it. However, after she remembered his word, the thought seemed even more inviting. Yes, she wanted to share her own blood with this beautiful woman.  
  
"You can drink from me," she finally said, probably too fast out of excitement.  
  
She could see the change in Seranas look as she licked her teeth. After a moment, her expression changed back to serious.  
  
"Have you ever let a vampire willingly drink from you?" She asked.  
  
"No," Aurora said in a small voice.  
  
"You’re first Time shouldn’t be like this. I don’t want to take that from you. Let us get out of here soon and then I'm going to get something to _eat_ " Serena said, with sympathetic tone.  
  
The answer sends a sharp pain of disappointment through Aurora's body, but she nodded and helped Serena to stay on her feet.  
When they reached the other side of the bridge, suddenly something moved in front of them. Two strange-looking creatures with wings jumped in their direction. Their movements were accompanied by metallic screech and rumble of stones.  
  
"Gargoyles, watch out!" Serena, cried beside her and lifted her free left hand, she immediately began to collect Magica in it.  
  
 Aurora did the same and moved with her right hand for her malachite blade, since it would be very difficult to reach the Akaviiri-sword with Serana’s arm around her shoulder.  
  
"I try to keep them at a distance, you must do the rest, if they break through to us," Serena, ordered.  
  
Aurora didn’t liked the way she was talking to her, but did what was wanted from her. Serena was obviously a talented mage. The first of the two beasts was dead before it had come only in the vicinity of Aurora's sword, the spark of an extremely powerful shock-spell illuminated the entire cave for one second.  
  
The second Gargoyle, however, managed to evade her magic for the first time and now was running in their direction with huge and fast steps. An ice-blot, sent from Serana, hit him in the chest and shattered there, as if it had hit directly on to stone, without causing damage. He was so fast that Aurora had to just point the sword forward and he would race into it, but the blade didn’t penetrate into him and bounced off his skin. The impact was so strong that the shock that was sent through the blade back into her arm, ripped the sword out of her hands.  
  
Only a moment later the monster collided with her and she was thrown backwards and lost Serena, out of sight. She found herself just inches away from the edge of the abyss. The gargoyle standing a few meters in front of her and seemed to prepare for his next attack.

 

An idea crossed Auroras mind. She quickly let her magical energy flow in her hands and catapulted an ice spike with all her strength right in to the ceiling of the cave. Directly above the Gargoyle a large boulder broke down. When it buried the beast under itself, it splintered in countless small pieces of rock that flew around and stabbed in Aurora's skin.  
  
When she got up she saw that Serena, was in a similar condition. She quickly ran over to her to see if she was okay. When she extended a hand to help her up, she just shook her head and started slowly to sit up on her own. Aurora began to look for her sword. She couldn’t see it anywhere. It must have been buried under the boulders along with the Gargoyle.  
  
As Aurora turned back, she saw that Serena was walking on a small staircase to its top. She quickly pushed the thought of her lost sword away and followed her.  
  
After a few pathways and other rooms that all, were built by the Old Nord, they reached a large, circular hall. The building looked a bit like an arena, because they were half way up and at this level could also go all the way around the hall. In the center, a few meters below them, a round place was located, which was covered with sand. On the opposite side of the hall there was a wall that was made out of solid rock. On it were strange symbols.  
  
A sudden, deafening roar tore her from her thoughts. On a stone throne in front of the wall, which she had not noticed before, a Draugr sat. It was larger than the two, she had faced so far and held a great ax in his hands.  
  
"Wait here," she said to Serena, and quickly began to run down to the ring.  
  
Another roar filled the room, letting dust from trickle the ceiling. This time, however, Aurora was ready and could avoid the blue shock wave by throwing herself to the side and as close as possible onto the floor.  
Suddenly she heard a whirring sound and looked up just in time to see a small golden dagger bit in to the breast of the Draugr. One second after it had hit its target, an electric flame exploded from it and the head of the Draugr burst into little pieces. His lifeless body sank to his knees and then fell forward onto the ground.  
  
As Aurora slowly sat up, she watched how Serena came down the stairs. It was obvious to her that the spell had drained all her strength. Just in time Aurora reached her and could save Serana from fallen down the last two steps.  
  
"That was pretty impressive," she said with a slight smile on her lips.  
  
Serena just nodded and put the majority of her weight on Aurora's shoulder. The path into the next chamber led directly past the wall. Aurora had realized what it was and was not particularly keen to walk this close to it. But there was no way around it, so she slowly began to move.  
  
"What kind of magic was that, I mean what the Draugr used? Have you seen anything like it? " Aurora asked while there were walking.  
  
"Not personally, but if I'm not mistaken, that was a Shout in the dragon language, _Dovahzul_ ," Serena said exhausted.  
  
They had to go out of tis cave as soon as possible and get something to hunting, so Serena, would regain his strength.  
  
When they were about ten meters away from the wall, Aurora began to hear the whispering in her head again. It seemed to call for her. The further they got to the wall, the harder it was to resist the urge of following the command. It was impossible to think of something different than what the wall wanted her to think.  
  
Without to let go of Serena , she slowly moved to the wall and felt like it pulled more and more. When she finally was pressing her forehead against the wall, the blue threads, which were already appeared for the last time, appeared and started to circle her. She noticed that they didn’t seemed to touch Serena.  
  
She heard a word in a foreign language in her head.  
  
GAAN. Stamina.   
  
It burned into her mind. Like last time, she knew she would never forget that word.  
  
When the wall released her, she stumbled backwards until she finally fell to the ground. Serena was still standing at the wall and looked at her.  
  
"What the fuck was that?" She asked.  
  
Aurora had to blink several times to see the other vampire clearly.  
  
"I don’t know, but that wasn’t the first time that happened."  
  
Serena looked back at the wall and ran her hand over its surface. Apparently lost in thoughts, she began to speak.  
  
"As far as I know, these walls were built from the old Nord. The inscription is written in Dovahzul. But I don’t know what it says or what they mean, "she said softly.  
  
When she had finished, she leaned forward a little to see the characters accurately. Aurora waited another moment before she rose from the ground, and admired Serena’s beautiful body. When she turned away from the wall, Aurora quickly looked at the floor and stood up.  
  
"See something you like?" Serena teased with a small smile on her lips as she walked slowly and unsteadily.  
  
Aurora could feel herself blushing.  
  
After a steep staircase, that had taken Serana to the border of her reserves, they finally stood before the exit of the ruins. Outside it was still night, and the moon was still high in the sky. They would still have several hours before the sun came up, hopefully enough time to hunt.  
  
  
The journey that lay in front of them was not as long as other ways in Skyrim, but to reach the fastest was to run cross country. Luckily they had met quickly on some hunters who had been so guileless and had taken them to their camp. In total there were four men and two wood elves. After only a few minutes Serena, had drained them all. Aurora couldn’t imagine how strong her thirst had been.  
  
After Serena had regained her strength, they traveled much faster and reached Morthal in the very next night. On the day they had stopped and stayed in the shadow of some large trees and slept alternately. In fact Aurora had slept most of the time, when she had offered to take part of the watch, she only had answered she had slept enough for the next thousand years.  
  
From Morthal on, they were even faster, because they could use the road, so they made their way to Dragon-Bridge until the half the next night.  
  
  
In the distance the actual Dragon-Bridge was to be seen, but that wasn’t what cached Aurora's attention. A man ran down the road from the north and would reach them in a view minutes. Serena apparently had noticed him too and slowed down.  
  
"What does he want?" She asked, sounding slightly amused.  
  
Aurora just shrugged with her shoulders and waited silently for him to come to them. The man, a Nord as it seemed, came directly towards them.  
  
"I need your help," he said desperately and wanted to talk and straight on, but was interrupted by Serena, who held up a hand and silenced him.  
  
"Should we listen to what he has to say or just take the _bite_ " she said with a sly smile.  
  
Aurora had learned to know the other vampire over the last two days, and liked her type of humor, even if in situations like this, she didn’t know whether she was serious or not.  
  
"Please, my wife and daughter are being held by Imperials. I dread to think what they do to them. "  
  
"Why do you flee, then?" Serena asked sharply.  
  
The man winced and looked down.  
  
"To seek help. There are a dozen men, I would have never been able to free them myself," he said sadly.  
  
"Why do the Imperials hold your family?" Aurora Asked in a kinder tone.  
  
"They think I am a Stormcloak and helped Ulfric to get into the city of Solitude where he killed the High King".  
  
"And, are you?" Serena asked the question she wanted to ask as well.  
  
"No, of course I'm not," the man said indignantly, "Please help me".  
  
Aurora looked in to Serana’s face it looked like she thought, then nodded almost unnoticeable.  
  
"All right," she finally said, "We are going to help your wife and daughter. Where can we find them?"  
  
"In the village there is a house, an imperial flag hangs outside the door, in there they are."  
  
"Good, you’re hiding here and wait until we return," said Serena, and began to walk towards the bridge.  
  
Dragon Bridge was a small village, but always has had a high military presence, as it was strategically very precious by the location right in front of the bridge. As they walked the main street through the village and had come a few hundred meters in to Dragon Bridge, a house was on the left side of the road. Two large banners that showed the imperial sign hung left and right of the entrance.  
  
"That it must be," Aurora said, pointing to the door.  
  
Serena stepped forward and looked at the imperial coat of arms.  
  
"Why does the Empire use a dragon as heraldic animal?" She asked.  
  
"As far as I know, the first emperors of the Empire were Dragonborn," Aurora told her.

 

She could see that Serena was about to ask another, when they heard a scream from inside the house. It was high and sounded like it came from a woman or a girl.  
  
"Let’s not waste any more time," Aurora could hear from the other vampire, then Serena was already at the door of the house.  
  
Only a moment later she opened the door with a kick and stepped inside. Aurora quickly looked around to make sure no one had seen them and shook her head. When she entered after a few seconds, she saw Serena stand there, unmoving like a stone statue. Two of the soldiers had drawn their weapons and pointed them at Serena, but that was not what had shocked her.  
  
GgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGg  
  
  
On the table in the back corner of the room, a woman was lying. Her clothes were torn and hung down in pieces from her body. Two of the soldiers were about to rape her while a third was holding a girl and forced her to watch. Half a dozen other men in imperial uniform stood around the table and cheered their comrades or insulted the woman.  
  
"Yes, take her! Her treacherous husband surly even hasn’t the right part of a man’s body to satisfy her! " One of the men exclaimed in an arrogant voice.  
  
Aurora's eyes wandered back to the girl she had closed her eyes tightly and clearly tried to press her hands on her ears. The soldier prevented it from happening by holding her by her arms.  
  
GgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGgGg  
  
  
She heard Serena whisper.  
  
"You bastards".  
  
It was said so quiet that she didn’t know whether the two soldiers had heard it or not. But it didn’t matter, because a moment later Serana jerked forward and struck the skulls of the soldiers against each other with such force that her hands pressed through the bone and when the two dead men fell to the ground, some bone fragments penetrated through the skin to the outside.  
  
A sudden fog surrounded Serena so dense Aurora couldn’t see her. Some moments later a loud hissing sound was to be heard and a creature that reminded her distant to a Gargoyle emerged from the fog. What the fuck had Serana changed in?  
  
Whatever it was, it was powerful. Without even getting the slightest bit in trouble, she killed one soldier after the other. Aurora could see how she lost herself in bloodlust and decided to act in order to bring the girl out of her reach.  
  
She drew her dagger and jumped behind the man, without hesitation she cut his throat. The sounds he made couldn’t be heard in the noise Serena and the soldiers were making. When his grip on the arms of the girl loosened, she quickly pulled her away back to the other end of the room.  
  
When the child was safe, Aurora looked back at the other vampire. Her movements were graceful and deadly. She was incredibly hot. Serena, was the _Dead_ , she was quick and efficient. She felt arousal growing inside her.  
  
The last soldier that stood, was one of the two who had raped the woman on the table. Serena, closed one of their big hands around his neck. Her claw-like fingernails dug into his skin. His face was a mask of horror. His back hit against the wall, the impact was so loud Aurora the wall would break down. His legs quivered freely in the air. After Serana had looked at him for a few seconds, Aurora could see how she sank her teeth into his throat and ripped out his wind-pipe.  
  
It took a moment, before she turned back into her human-form. Her armor had apparently survived the entire process. Slowly she walked to the table and picked up the woman, she was hovering at the edge of unconsciousness.  
  
"Let's go," Serana said as she walked out of the house and past Aurora.  
  
The child's face was fearful, Aurora sighed and looked into the eyes of the girl. She was about fourteen years old, but almost as tall as herself. She held out her hand and laid on the girls cheek. She could feel her shrank back from her touch.  
  
"I know you are afraid and gods know, you have every right to, but we want to bring you and your mother back to your father," she tried to calm the girl.  
  
The girl's views hadn’t changed, Aurora couldn’t blame her, after what she had just witnessed. But finally she nodded.  
  
"Well, we have to get out of here quickly, before the guards notice what happened here," she said, "Get on my back and hold on tight."  
  
The girl hesitated, then nodded again and climbed up. Aurora quickly caught up Serena and they ran side by side out of Dragon Bridge. After a few minutes they reached the hiding of the Nord and stopped. It wasn’t long before the man crawled out of the bushes and knelt before Serena onto the ground.  
  
"Thank you, I don’t know how to thank you," he said, taking his unconscious woman from Seranas arms.  
  
His daughter jumped from Aurora's back and ran to meet him. Lightly Aurora touched Serena at the shoulder and they began to move away from the family.  
  
"We should hurry before they lock down the village," Serena, said.  
  
A lomg time they walked silently side by side, until the silence was unbearable.  
  
"Serena, ...", she did not know what to say, just knew she needed to say anything at all, "... are you okay?" She finally asked.  
  
It took a moment before the answer was shoot back.  
  
"I'm fine," she said, but shook her head, "I'm fine," she said again in a shaky voice.  
  
By now they were out of Dragon Bridge a few miles and followed the road to Solitude. Suddenly Serena sank down to the cobblestones of the road and buried her face in her hands. Silent sobs could be heard. Slowly Aurora sat down beside her and put a hand on to her shoulder.  
  
"What's going on, talk to me," she asked softly.  
  
"How can you ask something like that? You are a daughter of Cold Harbor just like me. What do you suppose what's going on, "Serana spat.  
  
Carefully, she put an arm around Serana’s shoulder and pulled in for a hug. It took a moment, but she relaxed and accepted the embrace. Back in the room Aurora had been reminded at Molag Bal, but was quickly distracted by Serana’s little trick. The night still wasn’t that old, they had the time to take a break, so she gave Serana all the time she needed, holding her in her arms until she calmed down.  
  
  
The new night was still young when they reached some kind of a landing place. It was right behind a fortress which seemed to belong to the Thalmor. While they sat in the bot and ferried across the small part of the sea that separated the island from the mainland, Serena told her some stories about the castle.  
  
"Oh yeah, there is left something very important. Don’t tell anybody in there you are more than an ordinary vampire”, Serena, said in a serious tone," That's one of the reasons why I was in that awful stone”, she added quietly.  
  
Aurora nodded and looked back to the front where the dark silhouette of a great fortress slowly loomed out against the fog.  
  
When they had secured the boat at the pier on the island, they made their way to the main gate. A portcullis barred the way and a guard stood between the grid and the main gatel. He took a few steps forward as he saw them.  
  
"Lady Serena?" He asked incredulously, "You have returned. Open the gate, Lady Serena, has returned. "  
He disappeared into the castle, and shortly after the portcullis opened.  
  
"One more thing," Serena, began, "It's probably best if you’re leaving the talking to me”.  
  
Aurora nodded and together they entered the castle.  
  
The predominant smell in large hall of the fortress was a pungent stench of stale and old blood. Aurora suppressed to wrinkling her nose. How could they live in such a mass? Sure, it was comfortable to have access to as much blood as you want, but this was nothing different than disgusting.  
  
A large Nord with dark hair and hard facial expression got up to walk towards them.  
  
"Who do we have here? I am pleased to meet you. I can see you've brought me my Elder Scroll”, he said, pointing to a thing Serena had pulled out of her backpack.  
  
This thing was an Elder Scroll? So that was how they looked, she thought as she watched the object. It was as long as Serana’s extended arm and had golden tips at the end. The whole Scroll was in a case that surrounded it.  
  
"Is that all you see in me, Father?" Serena, suddenly asked, her voice sharp.  
  
The man looked calculating at her.  
  
"This is hardly the place nor the time for this talk, don’t you think Serena," he replied with a gloomy face, then he turned back to Aurora, "My name is Lord Harkon. I am grateful you brought back my dearest belonging. "  
  
His dearest belonging? How could he think of his daughter like that, if it even was meant to refer to her.  
  
"If you wish, I offer you to join my court," he said.  
  
"What if I refuse your offer?" She asked him.  
  
"You are welcome to change your mind at any time and come back, even if I hope this will not be necessary," he said with a forced friendly face.  
  
"Then I reject your offer for the time being and will come back when I know for certain what I want" Aurora said firmly.  
  
"It saddens me to hear that, but I hope you will change your opinion."  
  
Aurora nodded and turned to Serena. She nodded towards the exit and Aurora began to move. She could literally feel the tension in the room. When she almost had reached the stairs that led up to the gate, Harkon began to speak again.  
  
"I know what you are," he said.  
  
Aurora remained rooted to the spot, he knew it. Serena had warned her not to say anything and she hadn’t done it, so how did he know. The realization hit her like a stone in the stomach. He himself was a child of Cold Harbor. This set Serana’s first comment in the cave in a completely new light. He had sacrificed her to Molag Bal in order to become a pure-blood vampire.  
  
"I was hoping you would join us voluntarily, but I can’t let you go," he said, his voice was so cold a shiver ran down Aurora’s spine.  
  
There was no way out the hall was full of vampires loyal to Harkon. Any flight attempt would be suicide, so she could do nothing but let the two vampires let her to a cell in the basement of the castle.

 

**A/N:**

 

**If you like the story, than review it, I would be glad.**

**So tell me, what do you think of the imprisonment in the castle and how do you like the longer chapters?**

**If you have ideas that can be integrated into the story, review or send me an pm.**

**A/N 2:**

_**extraordinary banana** _ **had an excellent idea. Here I'm going to quote the review it was mentioned:**

**"…** _**I had another thought for you, in the games you can be the champion of every drastic Lord, however I reckon it would be cool if in your story you had different original characters playing the role of champions and wielding various artifacts, some could be very minor characters with short appearances, some could be much more important characters, they could be good or they could be evil. You could even allow people to submit their own characters and you pick your favorite…** _ **".**

 

**I think it is a really good idea, so if you want to send me a character or have questions, just send me a pm. :))**

 


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